POTSDAM — In order to be the best, you have to beat the best.
The Chateaugay girls varsity basketball team, the second-seeded team in the Section 10 Class D playoffs, came up short in that endeavor and dropped a 53-37 decision to the top seed — and undefeated — Hammond Red Devils in the first of three girls basketball championship games at SUNY Potsdam on Saturday.
In the other games, Gouverneur repeated as the Class B champion with a 49-40 triumph over Ogdensburg Free Academy, while Canton topped Madrid-Waddington in the Class C title game, 49-36.
CLASS D GAME
Hammond entered the game as the No. 1 ranked Class D team in the latest New York State Sports Writers Association poll and proved to be worthy of that ranking. The Red Devils broke away from a 17-17 tie early in the second quarter on the strength of a 9-0 run and never looked back en route to the team’s 17th consecutive win of the season.
“I am really proud of the girls. They have worked extremely hard to get to this point, and I couldn’t be prouder,” said Hammond head coach Alyssa Crosby, who was named as the NAC West Division’s Coach of the Year, as well as being a standout player during her high school years at Hammond Central.
“Chateaugay gave us some trouble early. We were focused on stopping them on the inside and their outside shooting was something that we didn’t anticipate. We made our adjustments at halftime and we were able to come away from this battle with a win,” Crosby added.
The Red Devils (17-0) used a strong defensive effort during the opening stages of the game and took the lead at the outset. Hammond denied Chateaugay any good scoring opportunities with multiple blocked shots while forcing the young Bulldogs to repeatedly turn the ball over. The Devils worked their way to a 15-9 lead after the opening quarter.
Chateaugay battled back and tied the game at 17-17 early in the second stanza on the strength of a pair of 3-point baskets from eighth-grader Madison McComb. The Red Devils then used that 9-0 surge to pull in front and led 31-23 at the half.
The teams traded points throughout the third quarter, with Hammond maintaining its eight-point cushion entering the final eight minutes of the season for the lady Bulldogs. The Red Devils captured the Section 10 Class D crown by outscoring Chateaugay 13-5 over the final stanza and earned the right to represent Section 10 in the upcoming state playoffs, which begin in a 5 p.m. start Friday against a Section 3 opponent that has yet to be determined.
The Red Devils will host their future opponent at Maxcy Hall.
Junior Landree Kenyon — the West Division’s MVP — paced the victors with a game-high 21 points, while senior Sadey Sprabary followed 16 points. The twin-tower duo (both are more than 6-feet, 2-inches tall) combined for several blocked shots.
Sophomore Ava Howie connected for 10 points.
Normally, the final game of the season brings about sorrow for the team on the short end of the score, but not in the case of the 2022-23 Chateaugay Bulldogs.
“There is no disappointment here. The girls are upset about the loss, and that’s understandable, but I have no regrets about how we played,” said veteran Chateaugay coach Chris Reynolds, who was named as the NAC East Division’s Coach of the Year.
“That team (Hammond) has a lot of weapons and experience. We had to roll the dice at certain points in the game, and unfortunately, we came up short.” Chateaugay rode a 12-game winning streak entering Saturday and finished at 18-4. Eighth-grader Irelynn LaPlante led Chateaugay offensively with 13 points, while junior Kaelyn Morgan followed with 11.
CLASS B GAME
Northern Athletic Conference Central Division champion and No. 8-ranked Gouverneur turned back a tenacious upset bid by OFA to repeat as Class B champions.
“I am really proud of how our girls bounced back and finished the game after a tough first half. Ogdensburg gave us some problems in the first half that we had to make adjustments,” Gouverneur coach Sean Devlin said.
Gouverneur (21-1) found itself involved in a battle runs against an OFA squad it had dispatched by margins of 27 and 36 points in the regular season.
Two 3-pointers gave Gouverneur a 6-0 start but OFA (11-11) ran off 12 straight points for a 12-10 first quarter lead and scored the last six points of the half to go up 26-24.
The Wildcats forced a flurry of turnovers reeling off the first 12 points on the third quarter for a 36-26 lead. But OFA crept back to 39-32 before guard Chole Smith and Elizabeth Riutta, who spent much of the dueling OFA’s Abby Raven in the low post, buried back-to-back 3s. Riutta followed with a pass from the high post to set up Courtney Forsythe for a conversion at the goal to seal the issue.
Riutta finished with 12 points in the Wildcats’ offense, which was led by Meredith Bush, who buried two 3s in the first quarter to score a team-high 15 points.
Raven overcame foul trouble in the second quarter to score a game-high 23 points.
“I was so proud of the girls for their effort. It was a tough loss but we finished the season well,” OFA coach Shannon LaFave said.
CLASS C GAME
Canton won the Class C title downing Madrid-Waddington. It was the Golden Bears’ first Class C crown since 2013 that was followed by seven Class B titles. M-W, which has won four the last six Class C crowns, fell short of a repeat.
“They caused us some problems because they were very active in the passing lanes,” Canton coach Jim DiSalvo said. “We got out of sorts at times but we settled down and we made our free throws in the fourth quarter. We work very hard on that in practice and it paid off.”
Madrid-Waddington enjoyed sporadic success with its full-court press against Canton. The Yellow Jackets established an uptempo that sometimes helter-skelter pace trying to rally from a 10-4 deficit in the first quarter and a 26-15 margin at halftime.
The halftime margin for the Golden Bears was created when center Ava Hoy and guard Olivia White combined for seven and nine points that produced all 16 second-quarter points.
The NAC East co-champion Jackets (13-9) pulled within three-points late in the third quarter at 28-25 and whittled the difference to 42-36 with 2:42 remaining in the game.
The Bears answered behind Hoy, who honored as the NAC Central MVP.
Hoy buried a 3-pointer to give Canton (16-6) a 17-5 lead in the second quarter before the Jackets started a rally that cut the difference 28-25 on inside conversion by Hailey Marcellus. Winnie Downs answered with a strong drive down the lane and Olivia White scored on the break for a 32-25 lead after three quarters.
Hoy finished with a game-high 14 points.
NAC East MVP Grace Plumley scored 12 points and fellow guard Lane Ruddy netted 10.
In Wednesday night’s Overall Section 10 playoffs at SUNY Canton, Hammond will play Class A champion Malone at 6 p.m. and Canton and Gouverneur will square off at 8 p.m. after the NAC Awards presentation.
SECTION 10 CHAMPIONSHIP
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Class D
At SUNY Potsdam
Hammond 53, Chateaugay 37
Chateaugay 9 14 9 5 – 37
Hammond 15 16 9 13 – 53
Chateaugay: McComb 3-1-9; LaPlante 4-2-13; Leonard 1-0-2; Gogolen 1-0-2; Morgan 5-1-11; McDonald, Adams, Reardon. Totals: 14-4-37.
Hammond: Sprabary 7-2-16; Manning 2-2-6; Kenyon 9-2-21; Howie 4-1-10; Cunningham, Vinch, Woodcock, Downs, Jones, Tulley. Totals: 22-7-53.
3-Pointers: Chateaugay - 5 (McComb 2, LaPlante 3), Hammond - 2 (Kenyon, Howie).
Records: Chateaugay (18-4), Hammond (17-0).
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