PLATSBURGH — The Boquet Valley girls basketball team wound up on top of a back-and-forth tilt with Chazy to win the Section VII Class D title 40-38 Saturday night at Clinton Community College.
Ella Lobdell led the Griffins with 18 points, including the game-clinching three-pointer.
“We played really well and we worked really well off each other,” a happy Lobdell said after the game.
The Griffins had lost to the Eagles twice during the regular season and Lobdell did not want a repeat of that.
“We definitely did not want that again, and we really wanted to win this game,” she said.
After a low-scoring first half in which Boquet Valley led 19-14, the game heated up in the second half.
The Griffins led 24-20 before Emma Howell hit two three-pointers from the left side for the Eagles to give them a 26-24 lead as the Chazy crowd went wild.
Lobdell answered back for Boquet Valley with two buckets sandwiched by a three-pointer from Chazy’s Cassidy Turk to make it 29-28 Chazy at the end of the third quarter.
Lobdell picked up her fourth foul early in the fourth quarter, and Chazy built a 33-28 lead with Carly LaPierre hitting a big layup.
But Sophie Pulsifer nailed a three-pointer to pull Boquet Valley to within two at 33-31 with 4:10 to go.
Turk and Lobdell then traded threes to make it 38-34 Chazy with 2:14 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Emily Hickey hit a layup for the Griffins to make it 38-36 and set up Lobdell’s winning three-pointer with 1:03 left.
“I think what I’ll remember most is that three to seal the deal,” Lobdell said.
“It boosted the whole entire crowd, our team, the coaches, our fans, it was just all amazing.”
Emma Conley hit a free throw with 2.7 seconds left to seal it for the Griffins.
Conley said her team never waivered
“We fought together even in the hard times when they (Chazy) got above us,” she said.
“We really worked together and got our composure back.”
Lobdell said it was a bit nerve-wracking having to play with four fouls most of the final quarter.
“I definitely was nervous because both times we played them in the regular season I fouled out,” she said.
“So I think having that fourth foul I definitely had to play more carefully in my defense because I didn’t have any room to make a mistake.”
Boquet Valley coach Terry Pulsifer said he reminded his team that good defense leads to good offense.
“I told them that in the fourth quarter this was going to be a nail-biter down to the wire,” he said.
“The person who plays the hardest and has the most guts is going to come out a champion, and they kind of took that and ran with it.”
In addition to Lobdell’s 18 points, Conley had 8 and Sophie Pulsifer had 7 to lead the Griffins.
Howell had 12 to lead the Eagles and LaPierre finished with 11.
Boquet Valley will next play in the first round of the state playoffs on Saturday back at CCC.