Huge rally not enough for OHS

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Oneonta’s Mariah Ruff, left, shoots while Cazenovia’s Raeanne Clabeaux defends during Oneonta’s 62-58 loss on Saturday to Section Three Champion Cazenovia in a Class B state girls basketball quarterfinal at Liverpool High. Benjamin Patton | The Daily Star

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March 14, 2011

Jackets denied third straight trip to state semis with 62-58 loss in OT

By Rob Centorani Staff Writer The Daily Star Mon Mar 14, 2011, 11:00 AM EDT

LIVERPOOL _ For so many reasons Saturday, Oneonta High's girls could have folded.

They ignored all of them _ the 17-point deficit early in the second quarter, the mounting foul problems and the noticeable size disparity _ and took Section Three champion Cazenovia into overtime.

Four minutes later, a Yellowjackets basketball program that packed 82 victories, four straight Section Four titles, two trips to the Class B state final and a Southern Tier Athletic Conference crown into a four-year span saw its season end, falling by four points.

Seniors Sienna Wisse, Erin Wolstenholme and Jenn Dilello witnessed all of it.

"I've played on some great teams," a teary-eyed Wisse said after the Jackets' 62-58 loss in a Class B state quarterfinal at Liverpool High capped their 19-3 season. "I would not trade to go to any other school for a state championship because our teams have been amazing. I'd never trade the girls. I'd never trade anything (about the last four years)."

Cazenovia (21-1) rode the inside strength of seniors Ashley Stec and Ellen Burr, and 6-for-8 free throw shooting by Taylor Malmsheimer, over the final 55.9 seconds of overtime to advance to the state semifinals for the first time. It also denied the Yellowjackets a third straight trip to the final four at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. The Lakers will meet defending state champion Irvington of Section One in a semifinal at 10 a.m. Friday. Irvington defeated OHS, 54-33, in last season's state final.

"It's absolutely incredible what those kids did," first-year OHS coach Matt Miller said of his senior trio. "I told them afterward that it will be a long time before Oneonta forgets what those kids did."

Too, those in attendance at Liverpool should save space in their memory banks for what transpired Saturday.

The 6-foot-1 Stec, bound for Division I Manhattan College next season, drew the third foul on Wolstenholme 56 seconds into the second quarter. Stec went 1-for-2 from the line for her 16th point of the night _ a start that included three first-quarter three-pointers _ to give the Lakers a 26-9 lead.

At that point, images of Yellowjackets' 66-33 loss to Binghamton in the STAC final might have surfaced among the yellow-clad OHS followers.

"I told them this is the quarter that will make us or break us," Miller said of his message after the first quarter. "If you give up now, we'll get rolled by 25 points. You could just tell they stepped it up defensively a ton. That's just them being competitors. I'm extremely proud of the effort they gave to even keep us in that game."

Even with Wolstenholme _ an Eighth Team all-state selection last season _ confined to the bench for the remainder of the half, the Yellowjackets closed the second quarter on a 19-6 run, using their press and up-tempo style to get back into it. Wisse started it by hitting a wing jumper with 5:46 left in the half.

Freshman Mariah Ruff hit a pair of free throws 20 seconds later on the way to 11 second-quarter points. Five minutes before halftime, Ruff _ an athletic pest at the top of the Yellowjackets' press _ scored in transition to narrow the OHS deficit to 26-15.

After Maggie Carpenter scored on a putback for Cazenovia, the Yellowjackets scored eight straight points.

Ruff hit a free throw, sophomore Hayley Dower made a fastbreak layup after receiving a hit-ahead pass from classmate Dani Nicosia, fellow sophomore Kelsey Baker hit two free throws, and Ruff capped the run with a wing three-pointer off a pass from Baker. It made the score, 28-23.

Wisse sandwiched a driving layup between a putback and a inside basket from Burr, the latter giving the Lakers a 32-25 lead.

But Ruff banked home a three-pointer two seconds before halftime to make it four-point spread.

"The one thing about our team is we'll never give up no matter what the score is," said Wisse, who finished with a team-high 18 points _ one more than Ruff. "It showed tonight. We never gave up. We just kept playing. We didn't shut down. Everyone knew if we kept playing, we'd get back in the game."

Wolstenholme hit a three-pointer 50 seconds into the third quarter to make it a three-point game, but she was whistled for her fourth foul 16 seconds later on a reach against the 6-0 Burr. She didn't reappear on the court until the fourth quarter.

"Tonight, it didn't work out in our favor to be short, obviously," said Wolstenholme, who went 6-for-9 from the floor and scored 14 points. "We tried to guard (Burr) and (Stec) as best we could. We had a hard time with it, but I think we did pretty well with what we had."

Still, the teams played to a 10-10 standoff in the third quarter.

Dilello made back-to-back plays early in the fourth quarter to pull OHS into a tie. She received the inbound pass to start the quarter about 35 feet from the basket. She looked to pass, but no one was open. So Dilello dribbled left and didn't stop until finishing with a layup that made it 42-40. On Oneonta's next possession, Dilello found Ruff open in the lane for a 10-footer that tied the score with 7:10 to play.

After Stec drew Wisse's fourth foul and hit two free throws with 6:46 left to give Cazenovia a 44-42 lead, both teams went cold.

The next basket came with 3:15 to go, when Wisse dribbled around a Wolstenholme screen at the top of the key before swishing a three-pointer. That gave the Jackets their first and only lead, at 45-44.

When Baker picked up her fourth foul and Stec hit a free throw with 2:41 to go, the score was tied at 45.

What happened next really hurt the Yellowjackets' chances. OHS had the ball out of bounds on the right sideline about 40 feet from the basket with 2:23 left. With Wisse inbounding, Wolstenholme faked as if she was coming to the ball to receive a pass. She then reversed course and ran around the screen at the left elbow as Wisse lofted a pinpoint pass to her uncovered teammate.

Wide open on the left side, Wolstenholme short-armed the layup attempt and missed.

Burr gave Cazenovia the lead on a free throw with 1:53 left. After Wisse was called for a five-second violation on an inbound play with 1:33 to go, Dougherty went 1-for-2 from the line to make it 47-45 with 1:02 to go.

OHS appeared to be in big trouble when Ruff missed a three with 47 seconds left, but Wolstenholme stole a pass on the other end.

The Yellowjackets called timeout with 32.1 seconds remaining. They tried to work a two-man game with Wisse and Wolstenholme near the top of the key, but Cazenovia defended it well. With time running down on the shot clock, Ruff made a hard cut into the lane from the right wing and received a bounce pass from Wolstenholme. Ruff turned and scored off the glass from 6 feet to tie the score at 47 with 7.1 seconds left.

Overtime became necessary when Wolstenholme blocked Burr's driving layup attempt just the before the buzzer.

Oneonta's tallest starter, the 5-10 Baker, fouled out with 1:02 left in regulation, and Wisse and Wolstenholme each had four fouls heading into overtime.

"I told my assistant coach (Paige Harris), if we win this game, we have to win it in regulation," Miller said. "We had too many girls in foul trouble."

Miller proved prophetic as Cazenovia scored three baskets in the paint during a 9-2 run to start the overtime session that pretty much sealed the victory.

First, Raeanne Clabeaux dribbled past Dilello along the left baseline and scored an uncontested layup against Oneonta's 2-3 zone to give the Lakers the lead for keeps with 3:12 to go. Then Burr received an entry pass on the left block and scored inside to cap her 19-point night with three minutes left, making it 51-47.

"If she gets you behind her, she's not going to miss many shots down there," Miller said of Burr, who shot 7-for-12 from the floor.

Wolstenholme answered with a wing jumper before Stec put the finishing touches on her game-high 23-point effort. She received a pass at the foul line, dribbled right and hit a layup as the Lakers took a 53-49 lead with 2:15 left.

"In all honesty, she was not in our scouting report," Miller said of Stec, who missed Cazenovia's 36-33 loss to OHS two years ago in a state quarterfinal because of a broken leg she suffered in the Lakers' sectional final victory. "She had like 130 points coming into the game. She made maybe nine threes on the season. She was absolutely huge for them tonight and we didn't see that coming."

The shot that really sunk the Jackets came from Clabeaux. Cazenovia again got the ball to Stec at the high post and OHS immediately closed on her. Stec then passed to Clabeaux on the right wing and she swished a three-pointer for a 56-49 lead with 1:19 to go.

Clabeaux missed 12 of her 14 shots in regulation before going 2-for-2 in overtime.

Wolstenholme and Wisse combined for nine points over the final 1:02, but OHS never had a chance to tie as Malmsheimer hit six free throws.

"I'm just so happy to play on a team that accomplished so much," Wolstenholme said. "That's almost unheard of _ a team going to the state final two years in a row and winning four straight sectional titles. It's a great feeling to be able to play on all those great teams with all those great players from the past. Playing with Sienna and Jenn, I'm going to miss it a lot."

Cazenovia 62, Oneonta 58

CLASS B STATE QUARTERFINAL

Saturday at Liverpool High

Number before team indicates section

4-ONEONTA (19-3): Kelsey Baker 1-2 2-2 4, Dani Nicosia 0-0 1-2 1, Mariah Ruff 5-18 5-6 17, Erin Wolstenholme 6-9 0-0 14, Sienna Wisse 7-14 2-4 18, Jenn Dilello 1-4 0-0 2, Hayley Dower 1-3 0-0 2, Natalie Vanderlaan-Meyering 0-0 0-0 0, Roxy Harrison 0-0 0-0 0, Minnie Webster 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21-51 10-14 58.

3-CAZENOVIA (21-1): Ashley Stec 6-12 8-10 23, Ellen Burr 7-12 5-9 19, Raeanne Clabeaux 4-16 0-0 9, Taylor Malmsheimer 0-2 6-8 6, Colleen Dougherty 0-1 3-4 3, Maggie Carpenter 1-2 0-0 2. TOTALS: 18-44 22-31 62.

Oneonta     9 19 10 9 11 _ 58

Cazenovia     23 9 10 5 15 _ 62

Three-point field goals: O 6 (Ruff 2, Wolstenholme 2, Wisse 2); C 4 (Stec 3, Clabeaux).

Rob Centorani can be reached at rcentorani@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 209.