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As Section III girls basketball basketball enters semifinals, here's what you need to know

jon rathbun, herkimer times telegram
·5 min read

SYRACUSE — Section III is down to 24 teams in girls' basketball playoffs, four in each of the six classes with semifinals starting the week and championship games Friday and Saturday at Onondaga Community College.

Championship pairings will be determined over the next three days with the semifinals getting started in Class C Monday at East Syracuse-Minoa High School. Classes AA, A and D play Tuesday, with classes AAA and B Wednesday using five sites.

The title games for classes A and C will be played Friday evening in Allyn Hall, down the hall from SRC Arena where the boys' games are scheduled. The other four games are Saturday.

Hanna Burdick sets up on one of her seven successful three-point shots for West Canada Valley during the Nighthawks' Section III playoff win over Onondaga Wednesday in Newport. Burdick set a school record with 10 threes against Waterville earlier this month and has 23 in her last four games with a career-high 70 as a senior.
Hanna Burdick sets up on one of her seven successful three-point shots for West Canada Valley during the Nighthawks' Section III playoff win over Onondaga Wednesday in Newport. Burdick set a school record with 10 threes against Waterville earlier this month and has 23 in her last four games with a career-high 70 as a senior.

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West Canada Valley, the No. 1 seed in Class C and the section's last unbeaten team for the boys or girls at 22-0, gets the semis started with its game Monday against No. 4 Weedsport (19-3).

Weedsport's Wolverines counter the West Canada Valley Nighthawks' perfect record with a 13-game winning streak in the meeting of two of the section's recently rebranded programs. Sophomore Kayla Flask (16.9 ppg) is the top scorer for Weedsport, a regular in the Class C Final Four in recent years while junior Analyce Grabowski (18.0 ppg) tops West Canada Valley which is back in Class C after a two-loss season in Class D last year.

The Nighthawks also feature Hanna Burdick, a senior averaging 11.1 points who recently set a school record with 10 3-pointers in one game, and Brooke Reddington, an eighth-grader averaging 13.1 points.

Sophomore Mallory Brown and junior Keegan McNabb average 12.2 and 11.9 points, respectively, for the Wolverines whose quarterfinal victory came in a rematch of last year's championship game loss to Cooperstown.

The second C semifinal pits No. 2 Hamilton (20-2) against No. 6 Dolgeville (16-6).

Hamilton Emerald Knight Logan Langel (foreground) and Mt. Markham Mustang Mya Hoke reach for a rebound during Friday's Class C quarterfinal in Hamilton.
Hamilton Emerald Knight Logan Langel (foreground) and Mt. Markham Mustang Mya Hoke reach for a rebound during Friday's Class C quarterfinal in Hamilton.

Hamilton's Emerald Knights have won their last 11 games after suffering their only two losses back-to-back against Little Falls and Syracuse-Bishop Ludden, semifinalists in classes B and AAA, respectively. They finished strong in Friday's 63-56 quarterfinal win over Mt. Markham despite having senior Lindsey Speer leave the game with the team trailing by five points in the third quarter. Speer, the team's leading scorer at 14.5 points per game, missed last year's run to the Class D sectional finals with an injury to the right knee on which she now sports a brace. Sophomore Logan Langel is the next-highest scorer at 13.8 points per game while juniors Reagan Hope (9.3 ppg) and Chloe LaFrance (9.1 ppg) each average more than nine points.

Dolgeville earned its spot in the Final Four with a breakthrough 69-57 win over No. 3 Westmoreland, a team that had beaten the Blue Devils twice in league play during the regular season. The 69 points were a season high for the Blue Devils who had beaten Port Byron 61-41 in the previous round after reaching 60 points only four times during the regular season. Freshman Payton Comstock is the lone Dolgeville player averaging double-digit scoring at 11.0 points per game, but sophomore Molly Rauch averages 9.8, freshman Kayden Davidson 8.9 and Hadessa Leavitt, one of the team's two seniors, 8.9. The Blue Devils have rallied around alumnus Audrey Williams, a former player who recently started leukemia treatment.

Warm-up shirts in support of former Blue Devil Audrey Williams line Dolgeville's bench at Westmoreland High School during Friday's Section III quarterfinal. Williams recently started leukemia treatment. The team and school have been raising funds to assist Williams and her family.
Warm-up shirts in support of former Blue Devil Audrey Williams line Dolgeville's bench at Westmoreland High School during Friday's Section III quarterfinal. Williams recently started leukemia treatment. The team and school have been raising funds to assist Williams and her family.

The Tuesday schedule sends Class AA to Oswego Class A to Phoenix and Class D to Indian River.

No. 1 seed Central Square (17-3) is joined by No. 2 Fulton (10-10), No. 5 Fayetteville-Manlius (8-13) and No. 6 Auburn (11-11) in the AA Final Four. Fulton defeated Whitesboro 53-27 in the quarterfinals while Auburn and Fayetteville-Manlius won on the road against teams seeded third and fourth. The last two AA champions moved to AAA this year in the new six-class playoff format.

Three of the top four seeds advanced in Class A - No. 1 Indian River (20-1), No. 2 Cortland (20-1) and No. 4 Westhill (13-7) - with No. 6 Jamesville-DeWitt (11-10) completing the Final Four as a 57-41 quarterfinal winner at No. 3 Oneida. Indian River's lone loss was against Class B semifinalist General Brown but the Warriors are also the only team that has beaten Cortland this season; Indian River is the reigning Class A sectional champion while Cortland won sectional and regional titles in Class B last year.

A win on the road by No. 5 Copenhagen (12-9), the 2022 state champion, gave Class D an all-Frontier League Final Four with the Golden Knights joining No. 1 Immaculate Heart of Watertown (9-12), No. 2 LaFargeville (17-4) and No. 3 Sackets Harbor (17-4) after beating 2023 champion Poland in a Friday quarterfinal.

Wednesday's Class B doubleheader at Rome Free Academy features a showdown in the nightcap between Notre Dame's Jugglers, the No. 1 seed, and Little Falls' 20-win Mounties. General Brown, a regional Class B champion two years ago, meets Marcellus in the first game at 5 p.m.

Sophomore Ella Trinkaus holds the ball to the left of her Notre Dame teammates and poses with the Jugglers after scoing the 1,000th point of her varsity career Feb. 13.
Sophomore Ella Trinkaus holds the ball to the left of her Notre Dame teammates and poses with the Jugglers after scoing the 1,000th point of her varsity career Feb. 13.

Notre Dame sophomore Ella Trinkaus and Little Falls junior Alexis Kress joined the area's list of 1,000-point scorers on consecutive days at the end of the regular season and lead their teams in scoring this season. Trinkaus averages 25.2 points per game for the 19-3 Jugglers with her sisters Maggie and Erin adding 9.7 and 9.0 respectively. Kress averages 18.7 points for a 20-2 Little Falls team that has only one senior on the roster; Adriana Izzo, a freshman, is the second-leading scorer at 15.0 followed by junior Ava Grcic (7.5) and freshman Andy-Lynn Podlas (6.8).

Junior Alexis Kress, pictured with with friends and family, scored the 1,000th point of her varsity career Feb. 12 during the Little Falls Mounties' victory over the Herkimer Magicians.
Junior Alexis Kress, pictured with with friends and family, scored the 1,000th point of her varsity career Feb. 12 during the Little Falls Mounties' victory over the Herkimer Magicians.

The AAA games will be played at Central Square High School Wednesday with three of the four semifinalists having won sectional titles in the past two years. Liverpool, the AA champion last year, is the No. 1 seed and plays No. 4 Baldwinsville in the late game following the 5 p.m. showdown between No. 3 Bishop Ludden of Syracuse and No. 2 Cicero-North Syracuse, the respective A and AA sectional champs from 2022.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: NYSPHSAA Section III girls basketball tournament results