Top-seeded Lady Eagles will make return trip to Class D1 Finals, outlast No. 5 Notre Dame-Batavia through back-and-forth battle behind clutch shots in 55-49 victory

The Fillmore Lady Eagles come together to celebrate after they defeated No. 5 Notre Dame-Batavia by a 55-49 count to mark their return to the Class D1 Finals on Friday at Letchworth. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore senior Hannah Roeske (10) is fouled after splitting the Notre Dame-Batavia defense on her way to the basket during Tuesday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Dansville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore senior Carlee Miller (22) looks to work around the Notre Dame-Batavia defense on her way inside during Tuesday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Dansville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore sophomore Emma Cole (11) goes up for the basket as the Notre Dame-Batavia defense looks to contest during Tuesday night’s Class D1 Semifinal matchup in Dansville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore senior Riley Voss (3) brings possession downcourt against the Notre Dame-Batavia defense during Tuesday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Dansville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore senior Erin Mawn (21) looks to let a three-point shot fly against the Notre Dame-Batavia defense during Tuesday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Dansville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

DANSVILLE — When the schedule for the top-seeded and defending Class D1 champion Fillmore Lady Eagles came out, it featured some first time opponents to go with their usual mixed bag of Allegany County League games. Among them — Section VI giant Franklinville, Class B2 powerhouse Wellsville and Canisteo-Greenwood, who was State ranked for much of the season in Class C.

Even though the list of opponents seemed daunting on paper, it was a schedule that has helped tremendously throughout the season, having lost only twice entering the night’s search for the program’s 20th win of the season.

Head coach Tom Parks said the number one thing behind their increased level of difficulty for their slate of games, was how the team could translate all of it when the time came to defend their crown in Sectionals.

“Playing tough opponents like Franklinville, Wellsville, Andover, it helps you prepare to be at your best, and play well from it,” he said. “But also, how to deal with the environments, like going to Wellsville and having their student section all over you. Being at the Barkley Showcase and playing on a bigger floor against a great team like Canisteo-Greenwood. It all adds to it. It certainly has prepared us playing that tough slate with all of those quality schools.”

Now, the program is one more giant step from returning back to the place where they won it all for the very first time last season — Letchworth. But first, business was at hand. No. 5 Notre Dame-Batavia was the only obstacle standing in Fillmore’s way, and throughout the course of the evening on Tuesday, the Lady Eagles had to work their very hardest in order to come out on top.

It was a game that Fillmore spent most of their time fighting from behind. That was until a fourth quarter message was brought about by Parks to his Lady Eagles squad. They had to come up with a defensive stand.

They did, and a lot more.

After the Lady Eagles successfully fought their way back from behind, they forced a 44-44 tie with the Lady Irish in the late stages of the fourth quarter. Since the tie, the defensive stand came into full effect, only giving up five more points to Notre Dame-Batavia in the last three minutes and change left to play, as they finished the final eight minute period on an 11-5 run to pull ahead for good to punch their ticket back to the Class D1 Finals on Friday with a 55-49 victory in Dansville.

“No doubt this game was tough,” Parks said. “Notre Dame’s a great team and they really came to play. They have a lot of special players on that team, and we trailed most of this game because of it. If you look at the minutes, we got that one-point lead later on in the game. It’s the beauty and awesomeness to have those seniors out there to keep everyone’s composure under control to close this game out. We talked about needing that defensive stand to succeed. We held them to seven points to our 16. Turns out, foul shooting was good enough and we did it well.”

Right away, the Lady Eagles (20-2) had to climb out of an early hole. In the first quarter, Notre Dame-Batavia picked up the game’s biggest lead it saw all evening of eight points, as they got out to a massive 9-1 to establish their ground. But it was quickly erased later on in the frame, as Fillmore came back to overtake the lead with a run of their own. At the end of it, the Lady Irish would find their way back on top with a 14-11 lead going into the second.

In the second quarter, it went to Fillmore’s advantage in a narrow decision, as the end of the first quarter saw a back-and-forth pace become instilled from the beginning until the end of the first half, with Notre Dame-Batavia continuing to lead, but only by a single point.

“We had done for the most part, a great defensive job. We made their other shooters score, and they were,” said Parks. “We didn’t really have that attention for detail, and we weren’t having a good defensive outing at the same time. But we were doing some good things on the offensive end to make up for it. It had started out with Notre Dame going up big. Then, we climbed back ahead by four, and it was back and forth from there.”

The third quarter was no different. Notre Dame-Batavia continued to cling onto a lead with some special teams work coming in handy by hitting two shots out of their first four of the second half to grow their lead to a pair. The Lady Irish lead would branch out to six at one point, but it would come back down to under two possessions off a Hannah Roeske runner to the basket with nearly half the time off the board.

Notre Dame-Batavia then picked up a 39-34 lead on Fillmore after a three-point play at the stripe was connected after a foul by the Lady Eagles defense on a drive saw the Lady Irish pick up the big basket. But with under two minutes left to play, the Lady Eagles made a little run behind Carlee Miller’s guidance, as she recorded the last four points on back-to-back transitions with two finger-rolls to cut the deficit to 42-39 heading to the fourth.

Just two minutes into the quarter, the game found a tie at 44 each with Roeske nailing her first and only three of the game to do so. Notre Dame-Batavia would go back out in front, but just for a moment, as Fillmore unbuckled the five seeds from the driver’s seat with Miller’s assistance from the stripe, nailing both shots to go back ahead with 3:29 left in regulation.

Then the defense began to come through for the top seeds, as they forced back-to-back turnovers in their defensive zone. One of them resulted in a big basket by Riley Voss, who lost her balance on a second attempt at the basket, performing an off-balanced pirouette underneath the nylon to put away the two to gain a three-point lead.

“She’s been asked to do so much for this team this year, Riley has, being in the point guard position for the first time in her career,” Parks said of his senior. “She doesn’t really pile up the points, but she’s so much more valuable than that. She does what her team needs to do to get us the win. It was a great move on her part. A nice move on the post down low to give us that nice finish, and a two-possession lead ultimately.”

The basket created a bundle of energy for the Lady Eagles in the endgame sequence, as they went on to tally six of the last nine points of the game all at the free throw line, capitalizing on more turnovers that resulted in fouls coming back down the other way to the charity stripe, ultimately sealing the game for good for Fillmore to book their reservation for the Finals this weekend.

“We needed this team to take a bit of a stranglehold, and we traded blows in the third quarter,” said Parks. “We were trailing by three going in, and then we needed to figure out a way to get that defensive stand. There was such great basketball being played in that quarter. You could really tell that both teams really wanted to win this game, and then it got to that fourth quarter where everything just found a way to click.”

Roeske led all scorers on the hardwood with a game-high 20 points for the Lady Eagles, pairing them with five assists handed out. Miller finished with 14 points herself, while Cole was a pair of rebounds shy of a double-double, recording 10 points and eight rebounds. On the special teams side of the world, Voss tallied three steals.

The Lady Eagles of Fillmore have now earned the right to defend their Class D1 championship in full force, and they will get the opportunity to do so this Friday night on the grounds of Letchworth Central School, where they will be pitted against No. 7 Cinderella — the Pavilion Lady Golden Gophers, in a meeting for the first time since the 2018 Class D1 Semifinal round. Pavilion defeated No. 6 Arkport/Canaseraga earlier in the evening in Dansville by a 52-40 count.

For Parks, he expects yet another defensive battle.

“Pavilion, they have size, they’re a good defensive team and they’re well-coached,” he said. “They’re a smart team, and I expect them to be a commendable opponent going up against us. At this point, everybody knows everybody’s homework and game plans. We know what to expect, and we’re going to be very well-prepared for this game. We will give it our best shot.”

Notre Dame-Batavia    14 13 15   7 – 49

Fillmore                        11 15 13 16 – 55

NOTRE DAME-BATAVIA: Jewel Shenck 1 0-0 2, Morgan Rhodes 5 7-10 19, Maylee Green 1 0-0 2, Lindsey Weidman 2 1-1 5, Sarah McGinnis 2 0-0 5, Montana Weidman 1 1-2 4, Amelia McCulley 4 4-7 12. Totals: 16 13-20 49.
FILLMORE: Riley Voss 1 2-4 4, Hannah Roeske 7 5-10 20, Emma Cole 5 0-0 10, Morgan Byer 2 0-0 5, Erin Mawn 1 0-0 2, Carlee Miller 4 6-9 14. Totals: 20 13-23 55.

3-point goals: ND-B 4 (Rhodes 2, McGinnis, Weidman), Fillmore 2 (Roeske, Byer).
Total Fouls: ND-B 15, Fillmore 13. Fouled out: Rhodes (ND-B), M. Weidman (ND-B).