Kingston advances to Section 9, AA semis
TIGERS CRUISE TO EASY QUARTERFINAL WINS IN SECTION 9, CLASS AA BOYS, GIRLS TOURNAMENTS Girls basketball: Tigers to face top-seed Roosevelt for berth in Section 9 final
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Kingston High’s defense wreaked havoc with Valley Central’s offense Monday and turned that into a big 49-23 victory that put the Tiger girls into the Section 9, Class AA semifinals.
The (15-6) Tigers play at topseeded Roosevelt 6 p.m. Thursday with a spot in Saturday’s championship game on the line.
“It will be a tough battle. They’re a very good team,” said Kingston coach Steve Garner, who does not expect a repeat of the Tigers’ 8862 win they got over the Presidents almost two months ago. “We’re going to go in kind of like we did today — just open minded, just play our game and play hard,” senior forward Chloe Chaffin said.
Chaffin lead Kingston with 21 points, six rebounds and three steals. Jaid Harrell (nine points, five rebounds, four steals, two assists), Nicole Spinelli (nine points, three assists) and Madison Burke (three assists, two steals) all had big contributions for the Tigers. Lanasia Dorsey and Samara Herzog each had two steals.
The Tigers played with a lot of
energy.
“Honestly, when we have energy on the bench and on the court, we play so much better. When we’re talking on defense, everything goes so much better,” Chaffin noted. “It went down a little, but we tried to pick it back up and secure the win.”
A disruptive man-toman defense coupled with a recycled zone made life miserable for the Crusaders. Ashley Cook and Spinelli, with Burke coming off the bench, provided tremendous pressure on the guards, Harrell, Chaffin and Dorsey did a great job effecting shots underneath and Chaffin played point on a suffocating press.
Valley Central never got comfortable in its offense and that led to 35 turnovers, including 15 steals and numerous unforced mistakes. Kingston, which led 14-2 after the first quarter, scored its first 17 points and 23 of the first 27 off turnovers.
“We were really trying to score in transition, convert the defense into offense,” Chaffin remarked.
“It was nice to see our defense carry us tonight,” said Garner, whose team saw the other sign of the proverbial coin when it lost by three at Valley Central on Jan. 11. The Tigers were outrebounded and committed 34 turnovers.
Spinelli hit a pair of long jumpers and Chaffin sank two 3-point field goals as the Tigers started the game with a 14-0 run. The (14-7) Crusaders avoided being shut out in the opening quarter as Valerie Long scored on a putback with a minute left.
Kingston dusted off a zone defense not used since the state-finalist teams of nearly a decade ago.
“The guard defense set the tone for that. That was a throwback defense from the (Rachel) Coffey era,” Garner revealed.
The Tigers started with a full-court man-to-man press, but wore themselves down executing it.
“We did that the first three minutes and people were tired, so we went to that zone. The funny thing is, when we screwed up that zone they scored, but we only did it like five or six times.
“We haven’t used it in a long time, mainly because we haven’t been athletic and long.” Garner added. “When we had those great teams, I had Keyana (Williams) at center, I had Charlise (Castro) on the wing, I had Ari Parker running all over the place, Kelly (Kell) and I put Rachel down low.”
Don’t look for that defense again in the semifinals. Roosevelt coach Cliff Sauer knows it too well.
“When he was an assistant here, we worked that defense,” Garner admitted. “That was our staple.”
Valley Central drew within 10 midway through the second quarter, but Spinelli converted a steal into a three-point play and Burke cashed in another theft with a fastbreak pass to Chaffin to help open a 2711 advantage by the break.
Megan Roell had 12 points to lead the Crusaders, who managed to score consecutive baskets only twice in the game.
“Everybody has a shot,” Garner said about the wide open Class AA field. Washingtonville is playing Warwick in the other semi. “If we play as well as we did defensively, we give ourselves a really good shot against anybody.” VALLEY CENTRAL (23)—Ross 0 0-0 0, Fuller 0 0-0 0, Crofoot 1 2-2 4, Roell 4 4-7 12, E. Cooney 1 0-0 2, S. Cooney 1 0-0 2, D. Murdock 0 1-2 1, Long 1 0-2 2, A. Murdock 0 0-0 0, Van Felt 0 0-2 0, Davoren 0 0-2 0, Beranger 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 7-17 23. KINGSTON (58)—Spinelli 4 1-1 9, Dorsey 0 0-0 0, A. Cook 0 0-0 0, Chaffin 9 1-3 21, Harrell 4 1-3 9, Burke 1 0-0 2, Amato 1 0-09 2, Herzog 1 0-0 2, Diers 0 0-0 0, Klein 1 0-0 2, Alonso 0 0-0 0, R. Cook 0 0-0 0, Santiago 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 4-9 58. Valley Central 2 9 5 7—23 Kingston 14 13 12 9—48 3-point field goals: Chaffin 2. Team records: Valley Central 14-7; Kingston 15-6.