FLORIDA--Veteran well-versed Tri-Valley varsity girls basketball coach Jason Closs predicted last week that his lady Bears would "have to play a better game against Seward Monday" but reality forced by a strong Spartans defense gave Seward an easy 23-point 58-35 win advancing them to the Section 9 Class C championship game.
This semifinals tilt started out looking good for Tri-Valley as senior forward Eliz Hannold canned a two-pointer for a 2-0 Bears lead but that proved to be the only game lead the Bears saw all night as Seward took a 15-8 first quarter lead.
The second 8-minutes of play proved disastrous for Tri-Valley as they were outscored 20-3 by Seward with Alexa Roach scoring five points off a two-pointer and one tray and Emi Mecht adding five points of a two-pointer and three foul shots.
Tri-Valley point guard Jackie Musa hit for the Bears three points off a two-pointer and one foul shot.
The negative part of Tri-Valley's game came mostly from errant passes, walking violations and fouls that resulted in a total of 12 Seward free throws.
The errant passes and walking violations came about from a strong Seward defense that turned around and gave them the offensive punch they needed to advance to the championship game held last night against defending champ Pine Plains at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh.
Monday's third quarter proved to be Tri-Valley's best eight minutes of play as they outscored the Spartans 18-10 off the scoring efforts of guard Morgan Shamro and Eliz Hannold. Shamro had a tray, a two-pointer and four foul shots while Hannold popped in three 2's.
Seward returned to their strong defensive efforts in the final quarter outscoring the Bears 13-6.
Leading scorer for Tri -Valley was Liz Harrold with 12 followed by Morgan Shamro with 11.
Annmarie Chiappone again led Seward with 21 points. Alexa Roach added nine points.
In regular season play against Seward the Spartans defeated the Bears by 35-points December 21 and edged Tri-Valley 52-50 two weeks ago at Grahamsville.
Looking on the bright side of Tri-Valley varsity girls basketball next year's team most likely will return the following players who saw a lot of time on the court this season.... Jackie Musa, Morgan Shamro, Kacie Allison, Ashley Lawrence and Samantha Raymond in addition to several outstanding JV players.
Post game remarks by Coach Closs centered around his feelings, "that we got our feet under us after half time and played better in the second half."
"We scrapped the second half and I'm proud of the girls as a lot of teams would have folded the tents after the first half but we hung in there and battled the whole second half," Closs noted.
Tri-Valley ends their season with a 11-10 overall record.
Seward coach Joe DiMattina noted, "we started off very strong and finished strong and played a lot different game they we played 12 days ago at Grahamsville."
"Our defense resulted in steals, turnovers and defensive rebounding and this helped us with our fast-break offense," DiMattina added.
Tri-Valley senior guard Autumn Bender (22) drives past Seward's Theresa Pmiley (12) in Monday's 58-35 Bears loss
in sectional play at Florida.
Tri-Valley junior guard Nicole Beach (12) gets off a shot against Seward's Erika Straub (11) in Monday's 58-35 Bears loss in sectional play at Florida.
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