High school basketball: Sackets boys advance to Section 3 Class D title game; Copenhagen girls fall in ‘D’

Sackets Harbor advances to its first sectional final in eight years.

Later in the afternoon, Copenhagen’s girls basketball team fell to Poland, 66-39, in a Class D semifinal at OCC’s Allyn Hall.

SACKETS HARBOR BOYS ADVANCE

Griner scored 32 points and hauled in nine rebounds to propel the top-seeded Patriots past the fifth-seeded Indians.

Ethan Shi supplied 13 points for Sackets Harbor (22-1), and Marcus Castine chipped in 10 points.

“It feels great to win,” Griner said. “I don’t think a lot of people had us winning this game. West Canada Valley’s a good team, they won a title last year and we’re a young team, it’s our first time getting here.”

Griner set the pace for the Patriots with 15 first-half points, including nine in the second quarter.

“I think we just came out with a lot of energy,” Griner, a junior guard, said. “Everyone was just playing together and our defense was there — I think we all played pretty well.”

“It feels great, obviously,” said Castine, a sophomore forward. “Knowing that everyone around us, they didn’t want to see us win. West Canada Valley won the (Class C) championship last year, so we they were thinking they were going to do it this year, but we weren’t having it. We’re a hard-working team, we bust our butts in practice and obviously it showed today.”

Griner hit back-to-back 3-pointers to complete the scoring for his team in the first half.

“I’m just really proud of the boys,” Sackets Harbor coach Jeff Robbins said. “Especially after the other day when I was pretty upset with them when we were playing not to lose. I just told them before, ‘we’ve got nothing to lose, it’s a basketball game.’ And they went out there and just played hungry and were relentless.”

With the game tied at 26-all at halftime, Sackets Harbor again turned up its offensive pressure, scoring 32 points in the third quarter.

“It was a good experience, I definitely like playing here,” Castine said. “It’s tough playing with a big crowd, a lot of noise and a lot of energy, so we’ve got to talk and make sure that we talk loud. Just making sure we’re doing the right things, like we’ve been practicing.”

The Patriots led by as many as 13 points in the period when Griner generated 13 points, including a trio of 3-pointers.

Shi scored seven of his points, including a 3-pointer, in the frame, and Jake Peters also connected on a trey.

Sackets Harbor, which led 58-48 entering the fourth quarter, led by as many as nine later in the period. But West Canada Valley charged back to pull within four points and then got within three on Brayden Shepardson’s 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining.

“They’ve got good shooters, that’s a good team,” Griner said of West Canada Valley. “We just stuck together and played together.”

Castine and Griner each shot a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.

Overall, the Patriots made 13 of 14 free-throw attempts, with Griner making 5-of-6.

“They just stepped big time,” Robbins said of his team. “Austin, he’s a great player, he’s really learned the mental part of the game and I thought he played with a tremendous amount of poise ... he just played within himself and was a leader.”

Camerohn Ludwig scored a team-high 25 points to pace West Canada Valley (16-7) and Shepardson finished with 14 points.

Sackets Harbor, which entered the week ranked No. 4 in the state in Class D, now faces No. 2 Hamilton in the final at 11 a.m. next Sunday, also at OCC.

Hamilton (20-3) defeated Madison, 52-42, in the earlier semifinal at OCC.

Sackets Harbor last competed in a Section 3 final in the 2014-15 season, when they were defeated by New York Mills, 40-38, in overtime.

“It’s awesome,” Robbins said. “To be this young, to have this many sophomores and be able to step up like this, it’s awesome. I don’t think they even really thought, I don’t think they realized that even going into this game truly what they’re capable of. They’re just relentless.”

COPENHAGEN GIRLS FALL IN SEMI

Logan Cookinham poured in a game-high 27 points as the second-seeded Tornadoes downed the third-seeded Golden Knights in a Class D semifinal.

Poland, ranked No. 5 in the state in Class D, avenged a loss to Copenhagen in last year’s Section 3 final.

“It was a big win for us,” Poland coach Jason Potempa said. “We figured that we might have to face them in the playoffs eventually, so we were excited to have the matchup. They’re still a pretty strong team, so for us to win today was pretty important for us.”

Copenhagen (18-5) entered as the reigning state champion in Class D.

“I was hoping that we could stay with them and compete,” Copenhagen coach Natalie Scott said of Poland. “Our league was not very tough this year, and we knew this would be a tough, tough matchup, Poland’s basically the same team that we faced last year.”

Maddison Haver chipped in 17 points for Poland (21-2) and Sydney Tabor generated 13 points.

“It’s very big win for our team as a whole, it’s a really good win being that we lost to Copenhagen in the playoffs, so it feels really good to get revenge and put ourselves in the section finals,” Cookinham said.

Cookinham scored 17 of her points in the second half to help put the game away.

“It feels really good, but we have some unfinished business here in sectionals and the rest of the year,” said Cookinham, who also became Poland’s all-time leading scorer when she connected on a lay-up late in the third quarter.

Leading 35-27 at halftime, the Tornadoes generated a decisive 9-0 run in the third quarter to take a 44-29 advantage.

“We did a really good job just kind of settling down in the offensive end, we were trying to force bad shots,” said Potempa, whose team advances to play Hamilton in Saturday’s final. “We were trying to move the basketball around and look for really good shots somewhere and we had to really key on rebounds.”

In the meantime, the Golden Knights went scoreless for a span of 6:03, as they only made one basket and two free throws in the period and went on to only score three baskets and two free throws the rest of the way.

Earlier, Copenhagen took its only lead of the day at 15-13 on a 3-pointer from senior Alyssa Fitzpatrick late in the first quarter.

But Poland, which led 17-15 after the first quarter, engineered an 11-0 surge to lead 24-15 with six minutes left in the second period.

The Golden Knights went scoreless for nearly six minutes and the Tornadoes went on to forge a 34-27 lead through the first half.

“We just wanted to compete — and we did in the first half,” Scott said. “The second half, it just got away from us.”

Senior Aubree Smykla scored a team-high 13 points and Fitzpatrick supplied 11 to pace the Golden Knights.

Last year, Copenhagen cruised past Poland to win the Section 3 title en route to winning the school’s first state championship in girls basketball.

The Golden Knights lost several key seniors to graduation last year, but this group exceeded even Scott’s expectations this season.

“But I’m proud of my team and what they did this year,” Scott said. “I don’t think anybody thought we would get this far.”