Shenendehowa girls' basketball parlays fast start to spot in final
Troy
Allowing a 2-0 lead was about all the Shenendehowa girls' basketball team was willing to concede Thursday night. The Plainsmen intended to erase all the intrigue from their Section II Class AA semifinal against sixth-seeded Albany as quickly as possible and managed to do so in less than nine minutes of action.
Shenendehowa watched the Falcons totally blitz third-seeded Niskayuna last week in the opening quarter and did the same thing to them Thursday, easily expanding its lead while using multiple players to do so.
The second-seeded Plainsmen established a double-digit edge after one quarter and expanded on it in the next on the way to posting an 81-58 victory over Albany.
"We wanted to get up on them early," Shenendehowa coach Joe Murphy said. "I was here (Wednesday for two Class A semifinal) games. Everybody had slow starts. Even our boys (Saturday) did. We wanted to get up on them early to kind of take their hopes away, and we did that. Hitting shots helps in that situation."
The Plainsmen (21-1), the defending champions, secured a berth in Saturday's final against top-seeded Saratoga (21-1).
"When we talked about that in pregame, we said, 'Tonight, we have to earn the opportunity to defend our title. You can't defend it if you are not in the championship game.' We took care of part one and now we get to play for it."
Not only was Shen making shots Thursday, the offense came from a variety of sources.
Albany (12-9) opened up a 23-4 cushion against Niskayuna last week. Thursday, the Falcons trailed Shen 21-11 after eight minutes.
"We saw what they did to Nisky in the (quarterfinal). We didn't want that to happen," said Shen junior guard Meghan Huerter, who led all scorers with 20 points.
Only two players for Shen, Rylee Carpenter and Meghan Huerter, played at...