Girls: Federation T.O.C. Semifinals

GLENS FALLS, NY- The NYS Federation Tournament of Champions Class AA Division featured the top four teams from theNYCHoops.net Girls Top Ten Rankings making it a true best of the best among the girls teams in the Empire State.

Both games were played at a no doubt championship caliber level with the talent on the floor shining in just about every way. It was an exciting pair of games from start to finish, and with NYCHoops.net on hand here is a recap of the action from the Cool Insuring Arena.

After coming up to Glens Falls and the NYS Federation Tournament of Champions a year ago and losing in the title game it's been the goal for this year's Christ the King team to get back and this time around finish the job.

That's been the desire for this Royals team since last season ended a year ago, and while there have been bumps in the road along the way Christ the King is there with a chance to this time win the championship after defeating Long Island Lutheran on Friday afternoon, 57-42.

If Christ the King wanted to take down LuHi the key was going to be the play of lead guard Khadija Demry '19. She has been the glue defensively to what the Royals want to do and if she was able to play the way she did a couple weeks back against Kateri Poole and Msgr. Scanlan in the CHSAA State Championship Game here against Crusaders star guard Celeste Taylor '19, then head coach Bob Mackey knew good things would come to his group yet again.

Coming up clutch again it was Demry's stellar defensive effort in limiting Taylor to just 4 points on 2-19 shooting from the floor that carried the Christ the King attack as Klarke Sconiers '19 had 19 points, while Demry had a strong offensive outing as well with 14 points to pace the Royals.

There were moments in early on that Christ the King was playing too much from the outside and settling for perimeter jumpers, not getting it inside to Sconiers and Natalija Marshall '20 and playing through the paint, though Sconiers said that quickly changed.

"We talked after the first quarter and said we had to use our height more," Sconiers said. "They could match us on the outside but we felt as if we had an advantage with our size down low and we started using that more."

With Sconiers pacing the way with a big second quarter where she had 9 points the Royals took a 26-20 lead into the break, but it was the play of Demry that would carry them the rest of the way.

Following around Taylor and making sure she didn't get any room for good looks on the outside, Demry was the definition of a pest and a defensive stopper, exactly what Mackey said he was looking for, though it was not a surprise to him with how she has been playing as of late.

"Her performance the last two or three weeks has been amazing," Mackey said of Demry. "With Kaelynn Satterfield '19having been out with her injury for a while Khadija became the defacto lead guard for us and that wasn't an easy task, but she has proven to be up to it."

The Christ the King lead was pushed to as many as 15 in the third quarter before Long Island Lutheran started to apply more of a full court trapping defense which would see Paris Clark '22 force a number of steals and turnovers to eventually see the Royals lead pushed all the way down to just 3 with 4:18 left in the game.

Going back to their bread and butter saw the Royals pound it into Sconiers as she was able to finish with contact late to punctuate a 14-2 close to the game for the Royals as they would for the final time pull away late to take the 57-42 win over the Crusaders.

Along with the strong games from Sconiers and Demry, Christ the King got 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists from Satterfield in her first game back from her ankle injury that sidelined her for over six weeks.

Long Island Lutheran got 14 points from Clark in the loss while Tamia Lawhorne '19 added 11 as well in the defeat that ends the Crusaders season a couple wins short of their Federation Championship goal.

Onto the title game now though is the Royals, back for a second straight year with Mackey saying her believes his team is ready to get over the top and hopefully leave Glens Falls this time with the crown.

"I think they are pretty confident," Mackey admitted. "They know what they have to do. We have to regroup because we didn't play a great game but still found a way to beat a very good LuHi team, though if we want to win tomorrow we have to do some things better. We will see what happens."

For the majority of this game it looked as if the Pride were going to be sent home early as they trailed by 8 at the half and by as many as 12 in the second half, but when you have Aubrey Griffin '19 on your side anything is possible.

It wasn't just Griffin though as Jaida Strippoli '19 and Julia Iorio '20 came up with massive three's in the 4th quarter and OT period, and while it did take four extra minutes it was Ossining pulling through to take a hard fought 81-76 victory.

Down for the near three and a half quarters, it was more of a mental switch for the Ossining girls who all said they weren't ready to bow down to defeat on Friday understanding that to win they needed to do a better job attacking the South Shore defense.

They weren't making their way inside as they were settling for much of the game until the fourth, but in the fourth it was Griffin putting the ball on the floor and doing a good job attacking the Vikings defense. That not only got the Pride better looks but it also set them up for open chances from the perimeter when they did go for outside shots.

With Griffin doing a strong job attacking that led to open looks for Iorio and Strippoli who sank clutch threes to help Ossining take the lead.

Even with all that said South Shore had a chance to win it at the end of regulation as Laysha de los Santos '19 had a contested layup attempt just before the buzzer to win it that wouldn't go to send the game into OT tied at 65.

From there the Pride sensed the frustration of the South Shore players bubbling over as Iorio said she could hear the Vikings players starting to get on each other as the game marched on.

Danaijah Williams '20 would score 14 of her team high 18 points in the second half and OT though, and Shimei Muhammad '20 would drain a big three to keep South Shore close toward the end after Ossining built up a five-point lead, but with four Vikings players fouling out late, including de los Santos, the adversity proved to be too much to overcome.

Griffin went 17-27 from the FT line in the game, shooting more from the charity stripe that South Shore did as a team, and with the UConn bound star sealing it from there late it was Ossining who moved on defeating South Shore 81-76 in OT in a very tough, physical, and well-played game.

Scoring 39 points to lead Ossining was Griffin but it was the 18 from Iorio and the 12 from Strippoli that Ossining head coach Dan Ricci admitted was just as important to their ultimate success.

It wasn't the type of game that Ricci wanted though as he knows going 31-53 as a team from the line would spell disaster on Saturday when they play Christ the King for the Class AA title, but he also admits that going up against a Royals team they lost to by 41 earlier this season when they didn't have Griffin or Strippoli in the lineup is an opportunity that he and his team are excited for, hopeful for a different result this time around.

"We are just exhausted right now but they will be very excited to play someone that beat us by 41 points," Ricci said about going up against Christ the King. " More than even though that we are just one of two Class AA teams left player meaning we are one of the two best in New York State right now and that's what I really care about."