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Top-ranked Harpursville girls fall in Class C state basketball semifinals

Posted On: Monday, March 17, 2014
By: Sherm McElwain

TROY — The preeminent player got hers. The superior team advanced.

So it went Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College, where Hoosic Valley’s girls dealt top-ranked Harpursville its first loss of the winter, 55-44 in a Class C state basketball semifinal.

The Rensselaer County squad executed exquisitely on both ends of the floor and assumed the lead for keeps when the first of its eight 3-point goals dropped in 4½ minutes into the matinee. The difference was nine points through one quarter and 13 late in the third before a Miranda Drummond-fueled surge drew the Hornets within six midway through the fourth.

Thereafter, two 3-pointers by the Indians in an 84-second span locked it up for the perennial Section 2 heavyweight, which will seek a second state title in three seasons Sunday against Chautauqua Lake.

Drummond’s final high school season ended with a Grade-A 25-point, 11-rebound, five-assist outing in the face of superb team defense employed by a Hoosic Valley squad that sensibly and predictably identified her as Priorities Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

The Indians’ Lauren Madigan — who guarded Drummond — Laura McGreevey and Alyssa Paul scored 18, 16 and 13 points, respectively, for the winners, and teamed for the eight 3-point goals.

The combination of quality gal-to-gal defense, offensive rebounding and ball movement that so frequently set up either a layup or available 3-pointer made for too tall a task for the Hornets.

“There weren’t any open spots,” Harpursville coach Kurt Ehrensbeck said of the Indians’ defense. “In order to get shots we had to create them every time.”

“They play defense very well. It seemed like they knew every move I was going to make,” Drummond said.

On the other end, try as they might the Hornets simply could not defend Hoosic Valley with anything approaching sustained success. If the Indians were not bagging a 3-pointer, they were driving too often free to the goal or cutting backdoor and accepting a feed behind beaten defenders.

So effective was the “home” team that, late in the first half, Harpursville opted for a 2-3 zone alignment rather than its preferred person-to-person resistance.

“We were getting beat to the basket so badly in the first half,” Ehrensbeck said. “I didn’t want to go zone but we had no choice.”

Hoosic Valley closed the first quarter with a 14-3 burst that made for an 18-9 advantage, and led by 27-19 after a horn-beating 3-point goal by Paul off a soundly designed baseline inbound play. The crisp ball movement was artistic and the shot from near the corner swished cleanly as time expired

That key turnabout followed a deep 3-pointer by Drummond and a free throw from Shelby Medovich that had Harpursville within five.

“That shot before halftime killed us,” Ehrensbeck said. “We had told people, if somebody goes to your corner you’ve got to step over and get out there. We didn’t, we got pinned on it. When you can knock down a corner three at the buzzer — it was a great play and a great shot.”

Drummond willed her way into take-over mode late in the third period with her team down a dozen.

Beginning with a free throw with 95 seconds left in the quarter, she poured in 16 of her team’s final 19 points despite defensive tactics long on torso-to-torso contact as well as help for Madigan at all times.

“The rule was, if 32 is on your side you stay high on your help,” Indians coach Walt Dorman said. “If 32 is on a wing by herself, the post player came up, we give help off the post. Make her shoot, just make her shoot out there. That girl is just a tremendous player.”

That 9½ minutes of won’t-be-stopped by Drummond featured some strong work on the offensive glass to go with a few other catchy individual efforts that had first-time observers digging into the pile of adjectives.

OK, that banked 3-pointer from atop the arc late in the third quarter was a gift, but aside from that everything Drummond produced was earned.

There was the duck through defenders to the rim and off-handed finish with no backboard assistance, and the dribbling probe of the perimeter until finding a wee slice of freedom and firing for three on the right wing.

There was the defensive rebound and end-to-end rush for two and, for her final points in a Harpursville uniform, one final grind for an offensive rebound, put-back and free throw to boot.

“I thought we had a lot of character in the second half,” Ehrensbeck said. “We put a good run on and then they banked in a three and they got another three.

“When they’re making three’s from 25 feet, I surrender. I mean, we were still trying to get out on them but, you’ve got to hand it to them when they can hit 23- and 25-footers in this building.”

A revealing statistical tale showed Hoosic Valley with 15 offensive rebounds to Harpursville’s four, and the winners closed with 16 assists against a mere four turnovers.

 

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