Story and video by JOHN ANDERSON, photos by STEVE HARRISON
Usually in a state championship game, the tears come after a loss.
For the Hornell Red Raiders girls’ basketball team, the tears did not come after a 54-50 loss to Cold Spring Harbor in the New York State Class B State Championship game Saturday night in Troy at Hudson Valley Community College.
The tears started on Friday when the team beat Chenango Forks, 53-47. There was no way the gym in Hornell would’ve held the amount of spectators who made the 10-hour, round-trip bus ride from the Maple City.
When the girls and the coaches came out of the locker room Friday afternoon from the win into the foyer at the arena, they were greeted by three busloads of students, community members and their family.
Hornell coach Jim Dagon was late to the party. He had something in his eye.
“They all erupted after we came out after (Friday’s) game … I had to duck into the bathroom because I got teary-eyed because it meant so much,” Dagon said. “The whole community is like that, though. Hornell is a special place and I’m proud to be from there.”
The crowd was so large and so loud, there were several moments you couldn’t find Superfan Julio Maldonado in the celebration eruptions.
“It’s been unbelievable … We had twice as many people here (compared to the other team) and these fans spent five hours on a bus each way. We have had such an unbelievable turnout, something I can’t even put words to,” Dagon said. “Yesterday, the whole student section was waiting for us at the entrance when we arrived and waited for us when we left.”
The support took some of the sting of the loss. Hornell held a 17-point first-half lead and a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter. But those numbers don’t show that Hornell was playing with three players with three fouls and a fourth had to sit out almost 10 minutes of the second half with four fouls.
You could see the difference on defense. A shot went up and instead of three Red Raiders crashing the boards, they had to be careful and stand for long rebounds so they were not called for fouls. Two other big calls went against Hornell in the last 1:08 and a tie game became a 4-point lead with eight seconds left the Red Raiders could not overcome.
A silence fell over the crowd, but it was almost a chance to realize in the last few seconds what Hornell had overcome. The team played the entire season without senior starter Lillian Hoyt, a 1,000-point scorer. That left the team with all underclassmen on the floor playing a fast, up-tempo game without a key piece of the puzzle.
And Dagon made sure everyone knew the game was played, it was won and it was lost, on the floor, by the players, by the coaches. Not the referees.
“We’ve dealt with foul trouble all year long, it wasn’t too far out of our comfort zone, but it’s tough and that’s what coaching is,” Dagon said. “The refs? Their job is extremely difficult. And in an environment like this? I couldn’t imagine. I reffed for a year before I started coaching and got out of it immediately! It’s a thankless job. I thought they did a good job of letting things go and they tightened up when they had to tighten up. We have to play with our feet, not our hands.”
(See an exciting highlight video by clicking HERE)
The game started with the No. 1 team in the state and the No. 2 team in the state trying to figure each other out. There were over two minutes gone until the first basket was made as both teams were playing a little tight and forcing shots.
Hornell’s Mia Nasca’s 3-pointer gave Hornell a 5-0 lead with 4:52 left in the first quarter and Cold Spring Harbor looked dazed on their next offensive possession as Hornell picked up the intensity and went up 6-0.
The Red Raider forced three straight turnovers and the Seahawks didn’t score their first point, a free throw, until there was 3:52 left in the opening stanza. Cold Spring Harbor’s first field goal was with 2:01 left in the first quarter to cut the Hornell lead to 10-3. But Hornell went ona run and held a 29-16 halftime lead.
Junior guard Selena Maldonado opened the second half with a statement. She stole a pass at halfcourt and as both teams got set, she drove the lane and scored for a 31-16 Hornell lead.
Moments later, Payton Bentley picked up her fourth foul less than a minute into the second half. Cold Spring Harbor took advantage and went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 31-23 in the third.
Hornell desperately needed a basket and Mia Nasca answered with a 3-pointer and a 34-23 lead with four minute left in the third. When Cold Spring Harbor again cut the lead to 10, Nasca again drained a 3-pointer to increase the lead.
In the fourth quarter, senior Ryan Reynolds from Cold Spring Harbor drained a 3-pointer to get the Seahawks within nine and then another 3-pointer cut the lead to 44-38 with 5:25 left. Reynolds who fouled out, was the story. She went 4-of-4 from 3-point range in the second half for 14 points.
Dagon had seen enough. Bentley came back the game as CSH’s run came to an end. Dagon kept A’ Jonay Hawkins in the game, as Hawkins, a junior, heated up, putting in her third basket of the game.
Cold Spring Harbor was not cold at all, as Reynolds again made a big 3-pointers and the lead was cut to 46-43 with 4:02 left in the game.
That’s when Hornell junior Jordyn Dyring had seen enough and willed her way to the basket and a five point lead. But there was Reynolds with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two.
Cold Spring Harbor’s Ainsley Dircks drove the baseline and tied it the game at 48-48 with 1:51 left, something that never seemed possible in the first half. Olivia Mulada, who took over the leadership role and scoring role with Reynolds on the bench, gave CSH their first lead with two free throws with 1:09 left. The sophomore finished with 16 points.
A tough intentional foul call against the Red Raiders, who were trying to foul at the end gave CPH the four-point lead that Hornell could not overcome in one possession.
“We played our hearts out, everyone is exhausted right now, but I am super proud of them. It’s obviously disappointing but we are going to use it as fuel next year,” Dagon said. “We have a lot of our core players back next year, we are not going to forget about it. That’s why we sat on the bench, watching the presentation of the championship block. Win or lose, today? This was the best day of my life. This weekend was awesome. I am happy no matter what the results were. This is not the one we wanted on the scoreboard, but just being here with this group is super, super special to me and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Dagon added, “(Cold Spring Harbor) a great team and group of girls who got to celebrate the state championship. I am happy for them, but I am happy for my girls and wish it went the other way but that’s not how it works.”
Hornell showed toughness. Despite contested shots, sophomore Raegan Evingham scored 11 points, made a fall-away 3-pointer while being fouled and had a double-double with 10 rebounds adding two assists and a block.
Dyring, who picked up hardware and MVP honors at every level this season, finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Hawkins had six points, five rebounds, two steals and a block while Bentley, a junior, had five points, six rebounds and a block. Nasca drained 3-of-5 from 3-point range for nine points and had two assists and two rebounds.
With 2:32 left in the first quarter, Maldonado went up for a defensive rebound and the ball came down sharply on her fingers. As she doubled over with pain, Dagon called a time out. Maldonado returned to the floor after the time out. In the second half, she had her left hand and wrist taped.
“She jammed her thumb up pretty bad. They said she could come back but she wanted to get it wrapped for extra protection,” Dagon said. “She’s a tough kid, I asked her if she wanted to come out, but she said ‘no way’ that’s how she is.”
Maldonado finished with eight points, six rebounds and six steals.
Dagon did not want the work of Hawkins to go unnoticed.
“I thought A’Jonay did a great job, it was only a two or three-point lead change difference from when she came in and when she came out,” Dagon said. “She gave us huge minutes, she gave us some big rebounds, buckets and defensive stops. I thought she plugged in defensively and I am super proud of her.”
Hornell will graduate Hoyt, Zahra Mehr, Chloe Harwood, Jazmyne Ridgeway and Aleah Stuart. Other returners (and up from the JV for the championship run) include Mayleigh Martin, Izabella Gardner, Teegan Eveland, Alivia Ryder, Alexis Smith and Lillian Hendrickson.
Dagon, with assistant coaches Chris Clark and Dantae Milliner, said the work in the off-season will focus on being the most conditioned team on the floor.
“They fight, Selena is bending over gasping for air and then she gets three steals. I trust them when they are tired,” Dagon said. “It’s an uncomfortable place to be for the first time and to get that close and it showed tonight. But the off-season starts tomorrow and that’s the girls’ attitude. So we are going to work hard to get back here. They can perform under those circumstances, I trust them whether they are tired or not, but that will be one of the top things on the board for next year — conditioning. It’s going to take a lot of work in the offseason.”
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