N I A G A R A G A Z E T T E
Published: February 28, 2008 11:18 pm
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Grand Island gets extinguished by Flames
By Jay SkurskiBUFFALO — The Grand Island Vikings proved they belonged
in the Section VI Class A-1 title game Thursday night.
Unfortunately for the Vikings, they weren’t able to do enough to come away
with that title. No. 3-seed Williamsville East opened a 24-15 lead at halftime
and held on for a 41-38 win over the upset-minded Vikings at Erie Community
College’s Flickinger Center.
“I can’t imagine what they’re feeling right now. I’m just excited for
them because the hard work paid off this year,” Williamsville East coach Chris
Durr said.
The Flames, who made their fourth consecutive appearance in the A-1 title game,
won it for the second time in three seasons. Kenmore East, which was defeated by
Grand Island in the semifinals Saturday, won in 2007.
It wasn’t easy for the Flames on Thursday, especially in the second half. No.
5-seed Grand Island (12-9 overall) cut the Williamsville East lead to just two
points on three separate occasions, but couldn’t earn the tying basket.
“They came back. They kept fighting,” Grand Island coach Jenepher Banker
said of her team, “but a couple times defensively we broke down and gave them
an easy basket. Offensively, a couple of those shots just didn’t go down that
we thought would.”
Williamsville East (17-6) got 11 points from senior Anna Stolzenburg, seven of
which came after halftime.
“She’s been playing very well over the last couple weeks,” Durr said of
his 5-foot-10 senior. “She grabbed some very important defensive rebounds and
hit some free throws.”
Also finishing with 11 points for the Flames was junior Neha Bakhai. That
included a big free throw with 28 seconds left to give her team a 40-36 lead.
Bakhai then hit another free throw with 23 seconds to go, making it 41-36. On
the ensuing possession, an attempted 3-pointer by Vikings eighth-grader
Kallie Banker rimmed out with 15 seconds to go.
The Vikings pulled to within one possession at 41-38 with 6.3 seconds to
play and then fouled. Williamsville East senior Bridget Steele missed a pair of
free throws with 2.5 seconds to play that would have ended it, but Grand Island
wasn’t able to advance the ball quick enough to get an attempted shot at tying
it off.
“Williamsville East did a nice job of attacking our weaknesses, so I want to
give them credit,” Banker said. “But I’m very proud of our kids. It was
really our seniors who showed us back to ECC, now our younger kids have to take
advantage of that in the future.”
Banker and Mallory Griffiths each had 12 points for Grand Island. Sophomore
Kristen Wegrzyn added eight, all on free throws.
The Vikings graduate five seniors in Griffiths, Catie Hilliard, Molly Hayes,
Jessica Oyer and Alex Peters.
Williamsville East advances to face the winner of the Pioneer-East Aurora Class
A-2 title game for the overall A championship. That game will be played at noon
Saturday, also at ECC.