Playing in their latest nail biter, the Pittsford Mendon girls basketball knew what to do to not only land themselves another victory, but a spot in the state tournament semifinals.
Viking head coach Todd Julien put the ball in the hands of his top scorer, Lauren D’Hont. D’Hont, one of six seniors in Mendon’s eight-man rotation, made a veteran play, connecting with a wide open Kristen Powers under the basket who scored her first two points of the game.
Powers’ layup with 3.2 seconds remaining gave the Vikings a 39-37 win over Grand Island (Section 6) in the Class A Far West Regional on Saturday at Buffalo State College. Mendon will play Troy (Section 2) in the semifinals at 3:15 p.m. on Friday at Hudson Valley Community College.
“We run that play a lot during the season, and I happened to be open under the basket and she had a great pass to me,” Powers said. “It was awesome. Being able to pull through for my team, there is no better feeling.”
Powers, the Vikings most experienced player in her fifth season on varsity, redeemed herself after missing two free throws with the game tied with 45.6 seconds left. It was Mendon’s defense that set up Powers’ dramatic shot.
Grand Island had the ball with the game tied with 18.7 seconds. GI had three chances to inbound the ball, but had to call timeout twice and turned it over after Mendon senior Anna Valentine, who led the Vikings with 10 points, drew a foul on Grand Island’s Grace Olszewski.
“If you watch our kids, we have a lot of poise,” Julien said. “We don’t have a lot of panic. We move the basketball. We made three unbelievable stops on the out of bounds play (at the end of the game). We defended real well.”
At 6-foot-3 Oursler, who will play for Robert Morris next season, dominated the interior for Grand Island and nearly knocked Mendon out of the state tournament for the second time in three years.
Oursler, who led all scorers with 22 points and added 16 rebounds, recorded a three-point play to give GI a 31-30 lead early in the fourth quarter. Oursler knocked down a running hook shot to tie the game at 35 midway through the fourth quarter.
The acrobatic hook proved to be her last points as Mendon used a variety of defenders down the stretch to deny her the ball.
Playing in their latest nail biter, the Pittsford Mendon girls basketball knew what to do to not only land themselves another victory, but a spot in the state tournament semifinals.
Viking head coach Todd Julien put the ball in the hands of his top scorer, Lauren D’Hont. D’Hont, one of six seniors in Mendon’s eight-man rotation, made a veteran play, connecting with a wide open Kristen Powers under the basket who scored her first two points of the game.
Powers’ layup with 3.2 seconds remaining gave the Vikings a 39-37 win over Grand Island (Section 6) in the Class A Far West Regional on Saturday at Buffalo State College. Mendon will play Troy (Section 2) in the semifinals at 3:15 p.m. on Friday at Hudson Valley Community College.
“We run that play a lot during the season, and I happened to be open under the basket and she had a great pass to me,” Powers said. “It was awesome. Being able to pull through for my team, there is no better feeling.”
Powers, the Vikings most experienced player in her fifth season on varsity, redeemed herself after missing two free throws with the game tied with 45.6 seconds left. It was Mendon’s defense that set up Powers’ dramatic shot.
Grand Island had the ball with the game tied with 18.7 seconds. GI had three chances to inbound the ball, but had to call timeout twice and turned it over after Mendon senior Anna Valentine, who led the Vikings with 10 points, drew a foul on Grand Island’s Grace Olszewski.
“If you watch our kids, we have a lot of poise,” Julien said. “We don’t have a lot of panic. We move the basketball. We made three unbelievable stops on the out of bounds play (at the end of the game). We defended real well.”
At 6-foot-3 Oursler, who will play for Robert Morris next season, dominated the interior for Grand Island and nearly knocked Mendon out of the state tournament for the second time in three years.
Oursler, who led all scorers with 22 points and added 16 rebounds, recorded a three-point play to give GI a 31-30 lead early in the fourth quarter. Oursler knocked down a running hook shot to tie the game at 35 midway through the fourth quarter.
The acrobatic hook proved to be her last points as Mendon used a variety of defenders down the stretch to deny her the ball.
“She was really big, and it was hard to move her,” Valentine said. “She was so strong and she had such a strong base you couldn’t push her away without being called for a foul. Our goal was to not get her too deep in the lane.”
Mendon won by less than five points for the third straight game, improving to 6-0 on games decided by five points or less. Mendon’s largest lead was five points, but the close victory netted the Vikings their first trip to the state semifinal since 1999.
“We lost two seasons ago and that was a bummer because we thought we could have gone all the way,” Powers said. “Being able to pull through with these girls, there is no better feeling.”
