UPDATE 12/27 at 12:32 p.m: Hackley beats Albertus Magnus 59-43 in the girls consolation game this morning.
- For this weeks girls basketball notebook, which covers Ursuline’s trip to Florida, click here.
- To read Rick Carpiniello’s column about Hackley’s appearance at the Slam Dunk tournament, click here.
- To read Dan DeFrancesco’s game story about the Magnus/Mary Louis game, you can find it here.
- To read my game story about Hamilton’s win over Hackley, click this link.
1 p.m. game – Hamilton 64, Hackley 55
Welcome to Section 1, Tiffany Corselli.
Hamilton’s senior guard – who is in her first season with the team after transferring from Sacred Heart – led all scorers with 27 points.
“We just wanted to show the world and the other teams that we can compete,” Corselli, who is in her first season with the reigning Class C champions, said. “This is our year to show people that it doesn’t matter what class you’re in.”
Corselli added nine rebounds, three steals and two assists.
The Red Raiders also got huge efforts from Maia Hood and Jasmine Robinson. Hood had 16 points and seven rebounds and teammate Jasmine Robinson added 15 points and seven steals.
Hamilton will face Mary Louis in the championship game at 5 p.m. Thursday.
“Mary Louis is coming out of the city, from Queens and they have always been top notch,” Carter said.
Kudos to Hackley for hanging tough in a game in which they easily could have folded in once they trailed by 16 points.
“We bucked down on defense and started to make smarter passes,” Hackley’s Stefanie Frolo said. “We started taking care of the ball and went to the hoop more.”
Hackley, who was 23-0 last season, whittled the Hamilton advantage down to four points with under a minute remaining.
“The girls were a little nervous, we don’t normally get to play in the County Center, so we had a little bit of that going on,” Hackley coach Shelagh Amann said. “I was proud of the way they played. They played hard and they never gave up.”
3 p.m. game – Mary Louis 65, Magnus 50 (the below post is from my colleague Dan DeFrancesco)
Teams live and die by the three. That could not be more evident today at the County Center.
Abertus Magnus took 29 three-pointers in their 65-50 loss to Mary Louis. The Falcons hit only 20.7% of their shots, due in large part to the fact they were contested or forced. Falcon coach Pat Buckley said his team playing from behind the majority of the game along with a lack of the ability to penetrate led to them to take over 50% of their shots from behind the arc.
Mary Louis’ Simone Hobdy led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
Albertus Magnus will play Thursday at 11 a.m. against Hackley in the consolation game. The Hilltoppers will play at 5 p.m. in the championship game against Hamilton.
Buckley and Parahus both agreed that games like this will help the Falcons achieve their ultimate goal of winning a gold ball. Buckley said he likes the fact his team plays a more difficult schedule after two seasons of playing weaker competition.
“I like our schedule; I think it’s tough,” Buckley said. “We just have to continue to improve.”
Challenge game: Dobbs Ferry 42, Rye 38
Kristin Foresti scored the go-ahead basket to break a tie with 23.6 seconds remaining to give Dobbs Ferry a lead it did not relinquish.
“We had just been running the weave up top and dribbling around,” Foresti said. “I saw an opening when I got the handoff.”
Alyssa Chipello led Dobbs Ferry with 14 points and teammate Molly Altholz had nine points.
“(Alyssa Chipello) struggled a bit in the first half and she stepped up,” Dobbs Ferry coach Erik Bartell said. “We always say that big players step up in big games. We expected someone to do it.”
Hannah Billingsley led the Garnets with 10 points
“Our offense was off and we weren’t very aggressive defensively,” Billingsley said. “We were down by (six) and we tied it at the end. We need to work on getting our offensive sets together.”
Up next in this bracket: Magnus vs. Hackley, 11 a.m. Thursday
Mary Louis vs. Hackley, 5 p.m. Thursday (I will be covering this game)
1 Comment
Did I miss something? Did Buckley sweep and win a Gold Ball? Big talk from Buckley and Parahus about playing weak competition for two years. I believe Ossining who’s gone undefeated in Westchester has the right to say that but Albertus has had their share of losses. It’s good to play better competition but you should do it without insulting the teams you are scheduled to play, especially, the ones that have and will beat you again. All this game did was show their weaknesses. Which they have many.