WHITE PLAINS--A strong Haldane defense coupled with the
outstanding scoring of their junior forward Allie Monteleone's 27-points
eliminated the Tri-Valley Lady Bears in the Class C regional final, 53-27,
Tuesday night at Westchester County Center in White Plains.
Tri-Valley's usually effective scoring punch was stifled
throughout the game by what Haldane coach Tyrone Searight called "our A
defensive game that wore this team down."
The Cold Spring Putnam County Haldane Lady Blue Devils
defensive efforts held Tri-Valley's high scoring senior point guard Katlynn
Greffrath to four points off one three-pointer and a foul shot to which
Tri-Valley coach Jason Closs comment was, "we just were not making shots and
they were playing good D (defense)".
Upon entering this state regional out bracket game
Tri-Valley was well aware that Haldane from Section 1 was a perennial contender
and a five-team state champion, the last coming in 2008 in Class C and four
titles between 1989 and 2000 playing as a Class D school.
The Lady Blue Devils defense and offensive power in this
game clearly showed why
they went undefeated in Section 1's Conference 1-D-, a league
consisting of one Class A school, three Class B schools and Haldane. With a 14-6
record their only six losses of the season saw four against Class A schools and
two to Class B.
Tri-Valley entered this game with a perfect undefeated 18-0
record and Haldane was perfect winning their last 11 games.
The Lady Bears hung tough through three quarters of play and
were only down seven points, 30-23, entering the final eight minutes of play
when Haldane went on a scoring binge opening the fourth quarter with 18
unanswered points and 10 of those points were by Allie Monteleone.
When asked about her scoring Monteleone said, "we just
wanted it more and came out strong in the fourth quarter." She added, "I think
we can go all the way and win states."
Haldane started well, jumping out to a 21-12 lead after one
quarter. The Lady Bears outscored the Lady Blue Devils 7-4 in the second quarter
with Haldane outscoring Tri-Valley 5-4 in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw Haldane's freshman guard Marissa
Lisikatos nailing a three-pointer from the left side, Monteleone canned a
10-footer from the left side, Monteleone made a layup and Lisikatos drilled
another three as the Blue Devils outscored Tri-Valley 23-4 to take the final
step to the final four into a matchup with Long Island champ Friends Academy
Saturday at New Rochelle High.
Haldane's senior point guard Samantha Lisikatos pretty much
summed up her teams efforts in commenting, "we were looking at them and we saw
they were tired and for the whole entire season our coach has been running us
into the ground so we were prepared to run people off the court."
Tri-Valley's Greffrath finishes her high school career with
1,028 points.
Lady Bears junior guard Caroline Martin led Tri-Valley with
10 points off of five two-point scores. Junior guard Sara Dertinger scored six
points off of three two point scores.
Tri-Valley committed 26 turnovers to Haldane's
14.
Coach Closs in comments following the game said, "when your
not hitting shots and they are playing good defense it forced us to try and
make up points."
"We did a lot of things well but the bottom line is when you
don't make shots against a good D it's very hard to win, Closs
added."
In commenting about the team and
this 18-1 season Closs pointed out, "a great season....obviously you like to go
one more game."
He added, "we have a great bunch of girls, it's just sad that you
have to end on a loss but a great a year for the program, for the girls, for the
coaching staff and a pleasure especially for me in my first year."
Haldane coach Searight indicated
that he feels his team "can win the whole thing as we play 32 minutes of Haldane
defense changing up starting out with man to man defense and then go to a zone
press in the second half."
"We wore their team down going into
the fourth quarter," Searight added.
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