PLATTSBURGH — The Saranac girls basketball team utilized a strong defense throughout and ended top-seeded Northeastern Clinton’s season with a 39-36 victory in the Class B Section VII final Friday night at Clinton Community College.
Brenna Ducatte led the Spartans with 13 points and did a masterful job of containing high-scoring Desiree Dubois to only seven points with some stifling defense.
“We worked a lot on defense in practice this week and that was our main concern,” Ducatte, a junior, said.
“The coaches were on us about getting tighter, to find more pressure and that’s just what we really focused on this week.”
While Saranac was playing tight defense, so was Northeastern as the score at the end of the first quarter was only 6-3 in favor of the Cougars.
Saranac battled back when Ducatte hit three straight shots, including a three-point play to give the Spartans a 10-6 lead.
The first half ended with the Spartans up 15-10.
Bailee LaFountain, who along with Dubois, is in the 1,000-point club, was held to just three points in the first half. Dubois had just one bucket.
Ducatte led the Spartans to start the second half with a blocked shot and a nifty behind-the-back pass to Layla Pellerin for a layup in the first minute to give her team a spark.
The game see-sawed back and forth for much of the third quarter before Ducatte nailed a three with 2:18 to go to give the Spartans a 25-19 lead.
Laci Roberts hit a three for NCCS to make it 26-23 Saranac, but Ducatte hit a rainbow three with just seven seconds left to give the Spartans a six-point lead at the end of three quarters.
LaFountain got her fourth foul called on her in the first minute of the fourth quarter, but stayed in the game. She hit a spin-around runner in the lane with 2:15 remaining to pull the Cougars to within four, and then hit a shot with just 6.5 seconds left to make it 35-34, but that is as close as NCCS would get.
Pellerin hit a huge three with 1:10 left to give Saranac a four-point lead, and freshman Lily Brown added a free throw with 5 seconds left to seal the win for the Spartans.
“Our focus in practice was determination and lots and lots of defense,” Pellerin, a junior, said.
“We push each other and we push each other until we hate each other, but in the end, we have a team that’s always there for each other during games and it is easy to be a champion when you have a team like that.”
NCCS had defeated the Spartans three times this season before Friday’s tilt. Saranac Coach Tim Newell was pleased with his team’s defensive effort.
“We played them three times this year. We tried pressuring them and they hurt us. Up there (Champlain), we tried playing zone and they hurt us. This time we just decided to pack it in and see what happens,” Newell said.
“It was very effective. We held them to just 10 points in the first half. That was pretty amazing.”
Newell said Ducatte set the tone.
“Brenna is a great talent and she impressed me with her defense, and I’ll tell you that the combination of Molly (Denis) and Lily Brown defending was also impressive,” he said.
Ducatte, Pellerin, Mchenna Brown and Denis all hit three-pointers during the game.
“Our three-point shots were huge for us,” Ducatte said.
“We had a lot of people hit some clutch threes and that was very helpful for us.”
The Spartans will play the Section II winner on Wednesday at Averill Park in the Albany area.
Ducatte said the girls are excited to play more basketball.
“We are going to keep working hard in practice and keep our energy levels high and stick together as a team,” she said.
“We have a great group of girls and I’m really excited.”