The Guilderland girls basketball team punched its ticket to Hudson Valley Community College the moment Stephanie McBride got into foul trouble.
As Catholic Central’s leading scorer sat on the bench in the fourth quarter, the Lady Dutch rallied for a 37-32 victory in Saturday’s Section II, Class AA quarterfinals at Shenendehowa High School.
Guilderland advances to Wednesday’s semifinal game against Bethlehem at HVCC. Bethlehem upended Shen 49-42 in Saturday’s other quarterfinal game in Clifton Park.
For them to step into Hudson Valley as one of the top four (class AA) teams, it’s an incredible accomplishment, said Guilderland coach Frank Cacckello.
McBride staked the defending champions from Catholic Central to a 24-15 halftime lead with 13 first half points, but even the senior guard had trouble with Guilderland’s defense in the second half. She managed only four points in the half before fouling out with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
`We had a specific defense to play against Stephanie,` said Cacckello. `Dee (Danielle) Burns did a great job on her all night.`
As McBride floundered, so did Catholic Central’s offense. The Crusaders (18-4) scored only eight points in the second half, with half of those coming in the final two minutes as they desperately tried to avoid the loss.
Guilderland’s offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders, either. It took the Lady Dutch (16-6) the better part of the second half to put together a 15-3 run that gave them a 30-27 lead. Several points during the run came at the free throw line, where Guilderland made 17 of its 26 attempts.
`I knew that we were in the bonus (early in the fourth quarter), so a lot of our offense was running the shot clock down to 10 (seconds) and then driving to the hoop,` said Cacckello.
Mary Kate O’Connell came up big for Guilderland late in the game. The senior center hit two clutch baskets to put the Lady Dutch ahead for good, and she added a key free throw in the final minute.
`I think our senior experience helped us a lot because we knew how to play in a situation like this,` said O’Connell, who finished with seven points.
`Mary Kate is an underrated post player, but she did a great job of distributing the ball and hitting some shots,` said Cacckello.
Kristin Pezze led Guilderland with 12 points, half of them coming on three-pointers, and the other half coming on free throws. Nikki Branchini went 6-for-6 from the foul line to add six points.
The Lady Dutch will now try to beat Bethlehem for the third time this season. Guilderland edged Bethlehem 39-38 on Jan. 9 and pulled away for a 41-29 victory Feb. 6.
Cacckello said winning a Sectional quarterfinal game on Shen’s home floor could be a good sign for his team as it tries to reach the class AA finals for the second time in the last five years.
`I go back to the team that first went to Hudson Valley (in 2005). We beat Bishop Maginn on this (Shen) floor, and this has an eerie similarity,` said Cacckello.“