LADY BEARS ADVANCE, BOYS
ELIMINATED
Semifinal sectional basketball Tuesday
night saw the top-seeded Tri-Valley Lady Bears defeating S.S. Seward 62-38,
Katelynn Greffrath scoring her 1,000th career point and the Chester boys
eliminating second-seeded Tri-Valley 75-67.
Greffrath entered the game needing 19 points for
1,000.
The win for the Lady Bears advances them into the Section
9 Class C girls basketball championship against Pine Plains which was played
last night at SUNY New Paltz.
The Lady Bears controlled the opening tip and scored on a
quick two-point layup by Colleen Jones but a three pointer by Seward's Ann Marie
Chiappone and two points by Emi Knecht gave Seward a quick 5-2 lead at the 5:47
mark.
A gritty Seward team looked like they wanted to make this
a close game as they upped their lead to 7-4 but a three-pointer by Greffrath at
the 3:24 mark gave Tri-Valley a 9-7 lead that they never
relinquished.
Tri-Valley outscored Seward 16-12 in the first quarter
and then proceeded to put the game on ice with 20 points in the second quarter
while holding Seward to six points on two field goals and two foul
shots.
Sabrena Smith with 10 points and Greffrath with two three
pointers for six points led Ti-Valley second quarter scoring.
Taking a halftime lead of 36-18 and with Greffrath
already scoring four three-pointers and two two-point scores for 16 points the
Tri-Valley gym capacity crowd knew that their ace point guard needed only three
more points to reach that 1,000 career point mark.
Those important three-points came at the 7:27 mark
of the third quarter as Greffrath drained a three-pointer to push the Tri-Valley
lead to 39-18. The large Tri-Valley crowd rose from their seats with loud
cheering and hand raising showing strong admiration for Katelynn's scoring
efforts.
A confident Greffrath in commenting
about her 1,000 point achievement said, "I wasn't really worrying how long it
was going to take to get my 1,000 points and I knew I would get it at some point
of the season and I wasn't going to rush it." She added that "I was just
focusing on the next team and what we needed to win.
According to the school's record book
the only other girl basketball player to score 1,000 or more points was
Jacquelynne (Jackie) Pugh in 2011 with a total of 1,182
points.
When asked if she had chosen a college to continue
her basketball career she noted, "I like Lock Haven University and I've talked
with the coach." Lock Haven is located at Loch Haven, Pa. and is a division 2
school that plays in the PSAC conference.
The young Seward team comprised of an eighth grader, one
freshman, one sophomore and three juniors hung tight again in the third quarter
only being outscored by the Bears 12-10 which pushed Tri-Valley's 20-point lead
to 48-28.
Tri-Valley outscored Seward in the fourth quarter 14-10
with Bears coach Jason Closs subbing freely throughout the final eight minutes
of play.
Second seed Pine Plains got to the championship game by
defeating third seed Tuxedo 49-41.
At the conclusion of the Tri-Valley-Seward game a
center-court 1000 point ceremony was held with coach Closs presenting the game
ball to Greffrath who finished the night leading both teams with 21 points off
of five three-pointers. She also added three steals for the
night.
Another outstanding scoring effort was produced by
Sabrena Smith who popped the nets for 19 points and three steals. Caroline
Martin had eight points, eight steals and nine rebounds and Colleen Jones added
five steals for Tri-Valley.
The Lady Bears win pushes their record to
17-0.
Freshman Emi Knecht and Junior Inga Squillace each had
eight points for Seward who finished the season at 11-7.
Seward has 28 turnovers to Tri-Valley's 18.
Seward coach Joe DiMattina felt his team did what
they wanted to do in the first quarter "but Tri-Valley came out really strong in
the second quarter scoring 20 points and we just could not match their points
like we did the first quarter."
DiMattina noted, "we have a young team and we over
achieved from what I though would happen at the beginning of the
season."
Coach Closs in commenting on his teams effort said,
"our girls mindset is that they come out with a business-like approach and do
what their suppose to do even if the chips are down a little bit and sooner or
later their going to come out of it." His remarks were as a result of a question
about Chester's first quarter efforts.
Closs noted that in preparation for the Pine Plains
game that "we have Pine Plains on film and I'll go home tonight and break that
down."
What a difference a week makes in analyzing the
Tri-Valley boys 75-66 win February 20 over Chester and Chester's 75-67 win
Tuesday night.
On February 20 Senior Tri-Valley boys Jesus Lozada,
Alex Brown and Sam Tingley scored a combined 55 points with Lozada leading all
scorers with 26 points coming from six three-pointers.
At Grahamsville Tuesday Chester's ace Senior point
guard Lawrence Young, Junior Brandon Sadlier and Sophomore Justin Feldman
combined for 65 of Chester's 75 total points.
Young had 27 points off of four three-pointers,
Sadlier had one tray and five two-pointers for 19 points and Feldman had 19
points off of three trays.
Chester took early control of the game by outscoring
the Bears 26-13 in the first quarter with Young leading the way with three trays
and Sadlier swishing the nets for 10 points off of five two-point shots.
Chester outscored Tri-Valley 11-10 in the second
quarter to take a 37-29 half time lead. Tingley led the Bears with four points
while Feldman had 5 points for Chester.
Almost even scoring for both teams in the third
quarter gave Chester the edge 13-12 and a 50-41 lead entering the final eight
minutes of play.
The trays finally started to fall for Tri-Valley in
the final eight minutes of play with Jared James getting one, another by Donntae
Brock and two by Tingley giving the Bears a 26-25 fourth quarter scoring
advantage.
Tingley led the Bears scoring with 14 points. Dion
Lynch, Lozada and Brock each had nine points for Tri-Valley who finishes the
season with at 13-5.
Chester with a 14-5 record moved on to last night's
championship game against S. S. Seward at SUNY New Paltz.
In discussing the difference between the two games
Bears coach Brian Tingley said, "it's
kind of the opposite of what happened last time and
we were kind of impatient offensively making one pass and looking to score
quickly."
"If we had been more patient with it and moved the
ball around we would have gotten better open looks then what we were getting,"
Tingley said.
In discussing the three-point play of the Bears in
the first game Tingley said the team "sort of fell in love with the three-point
game and I sort of warned our team about that in pre-game
discussions."
Chester coach Jon Marsilio felt that the main
difference between the two games was "our opening run in the first quarter where
we put a lot of energy into it.
On defense Marsilio was quick to point out his teams
efforts in limiting Tri-Valley's three point scoring and the addition of his
team's three-point scoring ability as important factors in Chester's win.
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