High school girls basketball: Indian River sends dependable crew to Section 3 title game

Top-seeded Indian River will compete in its first Section 3 final since 2018 when it faces second-seeded Central Square (15-7) in the Class A sectional championship game at 5 p.m. Saturday at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.

“We really don’t have any stars, we don’t have anybody in the top 15 or 10 in scoring,” Indian River coach Jim Whitley said. “We’ve got four girls really that are scoring in double figures and it’s one of those teams where you don’t really have a go-to person, but anyone of the five that we put out there can put the ball in the basket and are pretty good defenders as well.”

“I think that is really cool and it helps us so much,” junior guard Ravan Marsell said of the team’s balance. “Because one girl can have a really good defender on her, but another girl will step up. And at the end of the day it’s everyone who contributes everything to help us win games.”

The Warriors’ depth and consistency as a team was on display last week to carry them to the title game.

Case in point was Marsell’s effort in the Warriors’ 59-42 Class A semifinal victory over Jamesville-DeWitt on Friday night at Onondaga Community College.

One of the team’s top defenders as well as scorers, Marsell managed to score only six points in the game, but generated four rebounds, five assists and three steals.

“I enjoy playing good defense and then dishing it off to my teammates and let them do some work, too,” Marsell said.

During a key stretch late in the first half, just seconds after Allison LaMora made a basket, Marsell stole the ball and fed a pass inside to Michaela Delles, who scored on a layup as the Warriors generated two quick scores to build a 30-19 advantage heading into halftime.

“Typically Ravan scores in double figures and (Friday) she didn’t score a lot of points, but she did a lot things that don’t show up in the scoring,” Whitley said. “She had quite a few rebounds, she had some steals, she did a lot of things to lead us to that win even though she only had six points. But she got the ball to the right people.”

“It’s honestly really cool to see how much each of us have grown as basketball players together and as a team,” Marsell said. “The starting lineup has kind of been the dream since we were in the sixth grade starting out.”

Delles finished with 15 points, Bella Davis totaled a team-high 20 points, as well as 10 rebounds, and LaMora recorded a double-double of her own with 12 points and 11 rebounds as Indian River pulled away to prevail, 59-42, against J-D.

“We do have good balance,” Whitley said. “And you could see it in the game the other night, the girls love to look to make a good pass to a teammate for a basket, which is a nice characteristic to have.”

“All of our starters have led us in scoring at one point, we can all score 20 points if need be,” LaMora, a sophomore forward, said. “Just give the ball to any of us and we can work hard and score points.”

The Warriors also display plenty of balance statistically, led by Marsell, who averages 13.6 points per game, but Davis (12.3), Delles (11.7) and LaMora aren’t too far behind in this category.

“Every one of our starters can really shoot it from outside and every one of our starters can get to the rim as well and that’s something that bodes well for our offense,” Whitley said. “And it’s tough for a defense, too. Do you get up close to them and they go by you, or do you go over the screen or under the screen? They’re very versatile.”

“Our guards can drive, they can shoot, our post (players) can shoot, we have some girls who are really good at threes, we can all make layups, we can do everything,” LaMora said.

LaMora paces the team in rebounds (255), along with Davis (185) and Marsell (118), while Marsell leads in assists (98) and steals (93) and LaMora leads in blocks (59).

“We all are so positive and we are encouraging to everyone and I don’t think there’s anyone on the team who will take the spotlight from everyone else,” Marsell said. “Everyone is trying to give recognition to other players and I think it’s cool to see that. We just praise other girls on the help and it helps with our confidence a lot.”

“We have a lot of people, we have girls that can drive from any where, we have girls that can shoot, we can basically make anything from anywhere around the court,” Delles, a junior guard, said.

This collective effort came a season after Canisius College-bound Adriene LaMora led the team in scoring (20.1 points per game) as well as in rebounds (169) in guiding the team to the sectional semifinals.

“It’s really a lot different from last year,” Whitley said. “Last year, all of the teams we played their main goal was to stop Adriene LaMora and now it’s kind of hard to pinpoint one kid that you want to take away.”

“She was one of our main factors last year,” LaMora said of her sister Adriene. “And at the beginning it was rough without her, but we filled her spot quickly and now we’re ready.”

The Warriors have also displayed versatility on defense.

“We can, we play a lot of man, but we also mix it up a little bit, too,” Whitley said. “But we like to press, we like to try and make the other teams turn the ball over as much as we can.”

“We can do basically anything on defense, we can do zone, man, we have very good defenders, we all hustle, work hard and our defense wins games,” LaMora said.

Indian River, which won 15 of its past 16 games this season, is in quest of its first sectional championship since the 2007-08 campaign.

“It’s everything we ever wanted, we’ve been together since second grade,” LaMora said. “All of us have done everything for this moment, we’ve all worked hard and now it’s our time to shine.”

“I think it’s just like we’ve all been playing together for a long time and we’re all friends, so it definitely helps,” said Davis, a junior who can play at guard and forward. “This is an exciting time.”

Central Square reached the Section 3 final with a 56-44 triumph over Christian Brothers Academy last Friday night

“We’re going to have our work cut out for us,” Whitley said of Central Square. “They are a team that is improving, they seem to be very mentally mature, they don’t seem to get rattled too much. They’ve got a really good point guard Sam Haley, who is going to Syracuse on a Division I scholarship for soccer, she’s a goalie and she pretty much runs the show for them.

“And they’ve got another girl Natalie Bush, who is a very good shooter, she’s got 56 3-pointers I believe this year and that’s more than anybody on our team has and they’ve got some good girls around those two that can put the ball in the basket.”