The cast was different than last year, but the story was the same for the Cherry Valley-Springfield girls basketball team Saturday as the Lady Patriots repeated as Tri-Valley League champions with a 52-46 win over Schenevus at Unadilla Valley.
CV-S built up a double-digit lead in the late going and held off a furious late rally from Schenevus to earn back-to-back banners.
“This is an amazing group of girls,” CV-S coach Kelly Taggart said. “They fought through adversity throughout the year and they fought through some today and they pulled it out.”
Daphnee West was the top scorer for CV-S with 15 points while Mia Dubben followed close behind with 13 points.
Amber Burton and Sam Barrett led Schenevus with 16 and 13 points, respectively.
It was a CV-S victory that was especially impressive considering all the talent and experience lost from last year’s squad that made it to the sectional final.
“The core senior group has been playing together forever and they stepped up huge,” Taggart said. “My juniors, my underclassmen, my little eighth-grader [Mackenzie McGovern] came out and she played amazing. It was an all-around team win. I could not be more proud of these girls.”
The Lady Patriots started the game strong, using good passing to cut through the Schenevus defense while forcing the Dragons into frustrating possessions at the other end.
A nice layup by West with a minute to go in the first made it 15-5 CV-S. The Patriots’ great passing continued early in the second quarter as the lead expanded to 21-8 in the opening two minutes.
Taggart said the chemistry on display Saturday has been a long time coming after some ups and downs in the regular season.
“It took us a minute,” she said. “We lost some key players, so it took us a minute to learn how to play as a core group without certain players in the lineup. We had some bumps in the beginning and then we kind of worked it out and we figured it out as we were going. We’re still figuring it out.”
The pace slowed down a bit as the second quarter wore on, though CV-S was doing solid work on the boards at both ends of the court. Erin Williams hit a short jumper just before the halftime buzzer to give the Patriots a 31-18 halftime lead.
The third quarter got off to a sloppy start for both sides and before long Schenevus found itself in early foul trouble.
After going up 38-31 entering the final quarter, a layup by Dubben midway through the fourth capped a 7-0 run to make it 45-31 CV-S.
But Schenevus wasn’t going to go away quietly. The Dragons responded with a 14-3 run of their own, capped by a Barrett layup that led to a CV-S turnover with 44 seconds left as the Patriots’ lead was cut to 48-45.
However, a Schenevus turnover on an inbounds pass led to a pair of free throws, and West’s follow-up two-pointer off of the second miss with 23 seconds left effectively put the game away.
Both teams now turn their attention to the Class D sectional tournament. CV-S (16-3) is the second seed and will face the winner of Odessa-Montour and Stamford/Jefferson in the quarterfinals. Schenevus (14-6), meanwhile, hosts Richfield Springs in the 4 vs. 5 matchup.
“Right now I’m just trying to get ‘em healthy, myself included,” Taggart said with a laugh. “We’re just taking it one game at a time and we’ll see how it goes. We don’t want to look too far forward, we just want to plan for our next game.”
Cherry Valley-Springfield 52, Schenevus 46
CV-S … 15 16 7 14 — 52
SCS … 6 12 13 15 —46
CV-S: Mackenzie McGovern 1 2-6 4, Kailey Barnes 2 2-2 6, Daphnee West 5 5-10 15, Morgan Huff 2 1-2 6, Erin Williams 1 0-0 2, Mia Dubben 6 1-2 13, Brin Whiteman 1 3-4 6. Totals: 18 14-26 52
S: Autumn Burton 2 4-5 8, Amber Burton 6 3-6 16, Cady Ritton 2 2-5 6, Sam Barrett 5 2-4 13, Lexi Keator 1 0-0 3, Carleigh Reed 0 0-0 0, Leah Brundege 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 11-20 46
Three-point baskets: CV-S 2 (Huff, Whiteman); S 3 (Am. Burton, Barrett, Keator)
Unatego can’t get offense going in MAC title game loss to Greene
Chances are that when the Unatego and Greene girls meet on a basketball court, points are going to be hard to come by.
That was the case Saturday at Unadilla Valley as Unatego fell 43-32 as the Trojans won their first MAC title since 2008.
Greene won the regular season meeting 30-28 and avenged last year’s 42-36 defeat in the league final.
Abby Yahner paced Greene with 13 points while Cali Knapp added 10.
Lizzie Craft had a big game for Unatego with 22 points, but no other Spartan scored more than four points in the loss.
Unatego jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but before too long the game slowed down thanks to typically strong defense from both sides.
With just over two minutes left in the half, the score was tied 14-14. Knapp sent the Trojans into the break with a 17-16 lead after hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer.
Unatego’s offense continued to struggle early in the second half, not making clean passes and not converting scoring opportunities.
The Spartans didn’t score in the third quarter until Craft hit a pair of free throws at the 2:01 mark to make it 27-18. Craft would make a layup in the final seconds of the third to cut the lead to 29-20.
In the fourth, the Spartans were once again getting open looks but failing to convert. A three-point play by Craft with just over two minutes left made it 37-29 Greene, but that was as close as Unatego would get the rest of the way.
The Spartans (15-6) will have a bye to open next week’s sectional playoffs where they await either Union Springs or Groton in the Class C Quarterfinals next Friday.
Greene 43, Unatego 32
G … 10 7 12 14 — 43
U … 12 4 4 12 — 32
G: Claire Flanagan 1 0-0 2, Mia Yahner 0 1-2 1, Molly Cornell 4 0-0 8, Lyla Biefeldt 1 0-0 3, Abby Yahner 5 3-5 13, Cali Knapp 1 7-8 10, Josie Dutcher 2 1-3 5. Totals: 14 12-18 43
U: Bailey McCoy 0 2-4 2, Avery James 2 0-0 4, Madisyn Birdsall 0 0-2 0, Harly Birdsall 1 1-2 4, Gracie Tilt 0 1-4 1, Kaitlyn Henn 0 0-0 0, Lizzie Craft 6 10-13 22. Totals: 9 14-25 32
Three-point baskets: G 2 (Biefeldt, Knapp); U 1 (H. Birdsall)