Bulldogs are caught off guard by Hoosick Falls
By Jordan J. Michael
BERNE The BKW girls’ basketball team was riding a regular season Western Athletic Conference South title into its first Class CC playoff game at home.
Hoosick Falls crashed the party and sent everyone home early.
The 12th-seeded Hoosick Falls team came to the Dog Pound and took the fifth-seeded Bulldogs out by the score of 62 to 42. The BKW players, coaches, and fans were in a state of shock when the final buzzer sounded.
“I don’t know what I can say except that they outplayed us tonight,” said Head Coach Tom Galvin after the game. “They were better than the 4-14 team I saw on paper. They didn’t throw smoke and mirrors at us; they just played good basketball and beat us.”
“We’ve had a long season and most of our games have been close,” said Hoosick Falls Head Coach Kerry Branigan. “My girls did exactly what I asked them to do and that’s why we had such a great game.”
BKW was down by 15 with about five minutes left and tried to stage a comeback. It was to no avail because Hoosick Falls kept scoring baskets.
“I thought we could make a run with about six minutes left, but we couldn’t stop them,” Galvin said. “These kids don’t quit; they would do anything for their coach. I never counted us out but I kept waiting for it to come. We just didn’t have enough.”
Hoosick Falls led, 10 to 5, after a sloppy first quarter. Jocelyn Mann had a serious block on Hoosick’s Sarah McMahon.
Andrea Van Dyke fouled Hoosick’s Carly Pine from behind the three-point line, giving her three free throws. Pine sunk all three and ended up making 15 of 16 free throws in the game.
The closest the Bulldogs would get was 15 to 11 with about four minutes to go in the second quarter. Pine and McMahon poured it on after that and the Hoosick lead was 29 to 14 at halftime.
“The pace of the game was fast and that’s usually how we like it to be,” said Galvin. “They matched it, though, and we had foul trouble all night. We committed silly fouls and it hurt us. They shut us down tonight.”
Van Dyke, Mann, and Lauren Wilson all fouled out of the game for BKW. Van Dyke, the Bulldogs’ strongest player, sat out the entire third quarter with four fouls. She came back in for the fourth quarter with BKW down by 17 points.
Pine was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points and Hoosick got another 16 from Jenna Priore who sunk four key three-pointers throughout the game. Amber Pitcher led the Bulldogs with 16 points.
Mann, Van Dyke, Wilson, Pitcher, Tomi-Lee Springer, and Emma Scott played their final basketball game in a BKW uniform. The team wasn’t expected to go out this early.
“I just want to thank all the seniors for everything they gave to the team and the community,” said Galvin. “They’re going to do big things in life. I’m just sad that their high school basketball careers had to end this way.”