CV-S girls punch ticket to final four with dominant regional final victory

Mar. 10—A complete team effort pushed the Cherry Valley-Springfield girls basketball team to a 69-45 win over Smithtown Christian in the Class D Regional Championship at Farmingdale State Sunday.

This was the first time in program history that the Lady Patriots appeared in a Regional Championship, but they quickly put any thoughts of the moment being too big for them to rest.

Morgan Huff was the leading scorer for CV-S with 17 points as they received numerous contributions elsewhere from Daphnee West with 16 points and nine rebounds, Kailey Barnes with 11 points, Mackenzie McGovern with 10 and Mia Dubben with nine and 10 rebounds.

Annalyn Loiacono led Smithtown Christian with 25 points while Bryn Jansson added 15 points on five threes in the loss.

West, Huff, Brin Whiteman and Dubben each scored in the first three minutes to give CV-S an early 8-0 lead, one it would never surrender.

Loiacono made back-to-back buckets out of a timeout, including one of her six three-pointers on the day, to cut the deficit to 8-5 with four minutes remaining in the first quarter.

A McGovern three with 30 seconds left in the first pushed the lead to 16-5 as the Patriots would ride another 8-0 run into the second quarter.

Sara Cortese made it 20-7 with 5:30 left in the half before Janssen and Loiacono hit consecutive threes to trim it to 20-13 a minute later.

CV-S would respond with five straight points before another Loiacono three made it 25-16 with two minutes left.

A West layup with 55 seconds left and a Janssen three with 25 seconds left sent the Patriots into the locker room with a 27-19 lead at the half.

CV-S started the second half with three defensive stops and Dubben extended the lead to 29-19 one minute in.

Two more threes from Loiacono cut the CV-S lead to 30-25 with five minutes left in the quarter, but that was as close as the Knights would get as Huff responded immediately with a layup on the other end.

Five straight points from West pushed the lead back up to 37-25 with just over three minutes to go.

The Patriots ended the quarter with a three from Barnes and a West layup to take a 44-30 lead into the fourth as the Patriots were eight minutes away from clinching their first trip to the State Final Four.

Despite never finding themselves in this position before, the Patriots showed no sign of any nerves as they opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run to push the lead to 53-30.

The Knights wouldn't go quietly, but each time they scored, the Patriots had a response to keep them from inching back into the game.

Consecutive layups from Huff and Barnes made it 61-39 with just over three minutes to go.

Barnes scored with 20 seconds left prior to Janssen's fifth three, but by that point CV-S had sealed the win with a monster 25-point fourth quarter.

CV-S awaits the winner of Hammond and La Fargeville, who they will face in the Class D State Semifinal at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy Saturday at 2:15 p.m.

Cherry Valley-Springfield 69, Smithtown Christian 45 (Sunday)

CV-S ... 16 11 17 25 — 69

SC ... 5 14 11 15 — 45

CV-S: Mackenzie McGovern 4 0-0 10, Kailey Barnes 5 0-1 11, Kyra Druse 0 0-0 0, Daphnee West 7 2-6 16, Morgan Huff 8 0-1 17, Gabby Jicha 0 0-0 0, Sara Cortese 2 0-0 4, Erin Williams 0 0-0 0, Mia Dubben 3 3-4 9, Brin Whiteman 1 0-0 2. Totals: 30 5-12 69

SC: Annalyn Loiacono 7 5-7 25, Kayla Grover 0 0-0 0, Lila Eskeldal 0 0-0 0, Guilianna Cervini 0 0-0 0, Julia Velez 2 0-0 5, Bryn Jansson 5 0-0 15, Becklyn Nieves 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 5-7 45

Three-point baskets: CV-S 4 (McGovern 2, Barnes, Huff); SC 12 (Loiacono 6, Janssen 5, Velez)