Purple Ghosts, Vikings come home winners in FL playoffs

The Alexandria and Sackets Harbor girls basketball teams seemed to be building toward a dramatic finish to decide the Frontier League “D” Division all season.

And that’s exactly what happened Thursday night at Jefferson Community College.

The Purple Ghosts scored nine unanswered points in the final minute-and-a-half to beat the Patriots, 52-47, and win their first “D” Division playoff championship since 2001.

In the “C” Division final, Thousand Islands rebounded from a sloppy first half to beat South Lewis, 36-17, for their school-record fourth straight playoff title.

ALEXANDRIA 52, SACKETS HARBOR 47

Alexandria senior Jordan Bush made a circus lay-up to put the Purple Ghosts up 49-47 with 15 seconds left, and sophomore Lorraine Beard came up with a steal on the other end and sealed the win with a three-point play with 5.9 seconds remaining.

Bush hit the game-winner driving to her left, and with two hands, heaved up an under-handed shot with her back to the basket.

“That was what my team calls the flying Melinda,” said Bush, a four-year varsity starter who finished with a team-high 20 points. “That’s a bail-out shot. When we need a shot I just take it and wing it. That was a really lucky shot and I’m really surprised it went in. But, I’m really happy it did.”

With 56 seconds left, Bush scooped up a loose ball and made a layup on the other end to tie the game at 47.

The Purple Ghosts had led 43-33 with six minutes to play in the game, but gave up 14 unanswered points until Bush’s game-tying layup.

Rebecca Hitchcock came off the bench to score a career-high 14 points for Alexandria (13-4), and led the team with 10 in the first half. She had scored a total of 20 points all season prior to the game.

“She really kept us in the game early on,” Alexandria coach Dave Hollis said. “They were doubling (Beard) and (Bush), and she came in and kept us going.”

Senior forward Taylor Fields led Sackets Harbor (11-7) with 14 points. Jordan Gonseth scored all six of her points in the fourth quarter, while senior Olivia Kolb and freshman Samantha Menapace scored five points each, all in the second half. Caitlyn Graves scored eight points and Emily Schultes provided seven.

Beard finished with 10 for the Purple Ghosts.

Alexandria and Sackets Harbor split their two regular-season meetings en route to sharing the title, finishing with identical league (10-2) and divisional (7-1) records.

“This type of game, this was probably the ending that everybody expected,” Sackets Harbor coach Gregg Townsend said.

Hollis retired before last season after 12 years at the helm and served as a volunteer assistant, but stepped back into the head coaching spot this year.

“I’m just so proud of the girls,” Hollis said. “I know I said I was retired last year, but, I’m glad I came back. I never really left.”

“I wanted to be on Mr. Hollis’ basketball team since I was in seventh grade,” Alexandria senior Taylor Thomson said. “He was the one that got me into playing basketball in the first place, I never would have played if it wasn’t for him. So to finish my senior playing for him and winning this, it’s really made my year.”

THOUSAND ISLANDS 36, SOUTH LEWIS 17

Thousand Islands junior Kristin McGraw finished with a game-high 13 points, after scoring just four on 1-for-5 shooting in the first half.

It was the second-lowest scoring output this season for the Vikings (16-2).

“It seems like any time we’re on a big stage right now, our offense hides and our defense gets better,” Thousand Islands coach Pete Pettit said.

The Vikings had a tough time getting the ball into McGraw’s hands in the first half, and the team went into the locker room with just 15 points.

“The difference was slowing down, moving the ball more and running our offensive sets,” McGraw said. “That made us a lot more successful in the second half.”

“With her, more touches is more points,” Pettit added.

Thousand Islands played much of the game without its second-leading scorer, junior point guard Alesha Waterman. She fouled out with six minutes to play and was on the bench for a majority of the second half in foul trouble.

Pettit said Waterman had been sick all week, and the team was unsure if she would be able to give it a go.

“We were lucky to have her in the game today,” Pettit said. “We’re just glad that she gave us some good minutes while she was out there. Her fouls were just her being aggressive and I have no problem with that.”

Senior Brooke Robinson scored eight points for Thousand Islands, and sophomore Karly Sherman added seven.

Alexis Olmstead scored eight points to lead South Lewis (5-13).