New Paltz boys, Saugerties girls in states
Late scoring help Sawyers hold off Red Hook to earn Section 9, Class A crown
NEWBURGH, N.Y. » Julia Quinlan, Saugerties High’s guard turned forward, hasn’t really been working on her 3-point shooting, but don’t tell Red Hook that.
The sophomore came off the bench to hit three big 3-point field goals in the fourth quarter, and Grace VanRoy bounced back from foul trouble to score six points down the stretch to give Saugerties High its second Section 9, Class A girls basketball championship in three years, defeating Red Hook 65-58 Monday at Mount Saint Mary College.
The (16-5) Sawyers get a semifinal bye and will play 5 p.m. Friday in a regional final against either Rye of Section 1 or Section 4’s Seton Catholic. At stake is a berth in the state final four.
Grace VanRoy had 22 points, Erin Dudzic and Jaclyn Murphy each scored 11, Quinlan had nine and Anna VanRoy eight to lead Saugerties. Eighth-grader Morgan Tompkins scored 15 points, Syr Esposito had 13 and Chrissy Gildersleeve and Kristine Miller each added nine for Red Hook.
It a very different Sawyer team than the squad that won Class A in 2016 with Kellyann Averill and Tanisha Edge.
“When I was a freshman playing on varsity with Kellyann and Tanisha, we won with them and it was just a great feeling, but there wasn’t as much pressure on me as there was today,” Grace VanRoy said.
“Now all the weight is on me and Anna, Jack, Erin. It’s all of us. I think that, instead of putting all the pressure on ourselves, we played as a team finally and like a really good team,” she added. “We finally brought it all together as a team today, which was great. That’s what
we’ve been looking for all year, and it came together at the right time.”
Saugerties took control in the first quarter as Murphy hit a three and Anna VanRoy added two more to give the Sawyers a quick 11-3 advantage.
“Late in the season we started making ourselves a 3-point team, because we realized not everything is always going to be down low with me or Anna,” Grace VanRoy explained, “so we pushed Anna out to the 3 (strong forward). She started hitting threes like we couldn’t believe and we started getting it to Jack and Erin and they started getting hot. That’s what we wanted and it happened today, too.”
Red Hook battled back it used back-to-back treys from Kathryn MullenMechtly and Esposito plus a natural three-point play by Miller to pull ahead in
the second quarter. Murphy hit a pair of threes and Grace VanRoy had a 3-point play of her own to rally the Sawyers to a 32-26 halftime lead.
It was Red Hook turning the tables in the third as Esposito found Gildersleeve for consecutive 3-pointers to give the Raiders a 42-38 edge.
Grace VanRoy picked up her fourth foul with 1:18 left in the third. That had Saugerties coach Mike Melville leery.
When she got her fourth, I thought we were in trouble,” Melville said. “I admit it.”
The Sawyers needed people to step, and that was Quinlan and Christie Collins (six points) off the bench.
Anna VanRoy hit a big baseline jumper and Collins converted a threepoint play just after Grace VanRoy came off and the game was tied at 44 heading into the fourth.
Quinlan opened the fourth quarter with a pair
of 3-pointers sandwiched around a Collins putback. Saugerties extended its lead to 57-49 on Quinlan’s trey midway through the period. Red Hook never got closer than 64-58 down the stretch.
Said Red Hook coach Andrew Makebish, “We kept battling, but couldn’t come all the way back.”
Said Quinlan, “All offseason, we’ve been learning to play the post. All post moves.
“I usually play down low,” explained Quinlan, who rarely practices shooting threes, but knew she had to step up. She went out on the wings where Dudzic and Anna VanRoy found her. “I don’t know. It was kind of just like, spur of the moment, get out there and shoot some threes. Whatever happens, happens, and it worked in our favor today.”
Said Makebish, “As I said last year, you always need luck and some good shooting. Quinlan happened to catch fire and hit three threes.”
“She’s been a guard most of her life,” Melville said. “I’ve been trying to get her to play inside all summer and she’s an athletic force for us right now. “I’ve seen her shoot a lot of threes. She hasn’t shot a lot this season because of her role. What a big stage to do this. I guess she’s trying to prove a point to me that, ‘Hey, I’m a guard, coach. Put me back out there.’”
Editor’s note: The headline and body of this story were modified 09:28 AM 03-6-18 to remove a reference to the Red Hook team as being defending champions, which they were not.