Andover/Whitesville captures 1st Class D2 title in debut season as one, knocking off No. 4 Avoca/Prattsburgh; Top-seeded Fillmore stymied by stout No. 2 Notre Dame-Batavia defense in Class D1 Final

Written By Chris Brooks

GAINESVILLE — The road in the debut season for Andover/Whitesville has been one of great efficaciousness. The team entered Sectionals red hot with wins in nine of their last 10 games while playing some of their best basketball at the most crucial time.


Andover/Whitesville would grab a first-round bye in the Class D2 bracket after clinching the No. 2 seed overall. To begin their hunt towards catching championship fever, they would come out swinging for the fences with a massive statement — an 89-30 win highlighted by a career-night, one of many, for junior Vanessa Hall, who had 48 points in the Quarterfinal triumph over Lima Christian.

Their next obstacle was a trip to the Semifinals, approaching what has been a brick wall in Sectionals for the last five years — the five-time Class D2 Champions themselves, the Elba Lady Lancers. It was perhaps the hardest that Andover/Whitesville had to work all season in order to get a chance at finally toppling the long-standing empire.

They would soon accept that challenge, and after what was a fight to the end, that brick wall was soon reduced to rubble. A win they waited so long for, had finally happened. And with it, came a chance to win a Class D2 Championship for the first time in their debut season as one.

All that was left in their way was No. 4 Avoca/Prattsburgh.

It all came down to Friday night at Letchworth. The chance to fulfill an ending of a lifetime was 32 more minutes away. Like their Semifinal battle with Elba, Andover/Whitesville would face some similar circumstances along the way against the No. 4 seeds — a brilliant end to the first half, transforming into yet another race to the finish.

Once again, it was a race that Andover/Whitesville managed to prevail in.

In their first ever season together, the No. 2 seeds would go on to record their first Class D2 Championship. For Andover, their first since 2007, and for Whitesville, it’s their first since 2012, as the fourth quarter defensive stand shines through, holding Avoca-Prattsburgh to three shots from the field while capitalizing on a red hot start after a 37-all tie going into the last period, holding strong until Gabbi Hall ended the game with a steal off an inbound with seconds remaining, sealing the deal on a 49-43 victory to finally complete Andover/Whitesville’s everlasting road to glory.

“This is really tough to put into words. I am so proud of the girls, and they worked so hard this season to make this happen,” said Andover/Whitesville co-coach Aaron Rawady. “Last game, we didn’t want it to go the way it did in the second half. Fortunately, we were able to finish the job and it helped prepare for a similar situation tonight. A seven-point lead at the half, and we gave it up pretty early. But the girls stayed calm, because we had been there before. They did what they were able to do with some outstanding defense in the fourth quarter. We had some huge stops, knocked down some big free throws when we needed to. They made this happen.”

You could imagine the elation celebrated by Andover/Whitesville (19-3) after claiming their first Sectional title in their debut season. But like their previous matchup with Elba, they would have to face a series of trials and tribulations against Avoca/Prattsburgh. That would come into effect right in the beginning, after falling behind by a 16-10 count after the opening quarter.

Seven of the game’s first nine points would swing Avoca/Prattsburgh’s way, including a hot start for Kendra Pinckney, who had eight of the team’s 16 points to kick the action off. Andover/Whitesville would respond with the next four points from Rachel Jackson, who cut the deficit to a pair before another run by the No. 4 seeds branched their lead out greatly, leading by nine behind a 7-0 run to help close out the quarter with the six-point lead.

In the second quarter, Andover/Whitesville responded after falling behind rather quickly to Avoca/Prattsburgh with as strong of a first half finish as they’ve had thus far. Falling behind by six, the No. 2 seeds, behind some key contributions from Vanessa Hall, Rachel Jackson and Maria Riloba, all hitting a three in three straight possessions on offense.

The treys came after Graci Lewis-Ellison helped score four of the team’s first six points of the quarter, providing the fuel needed to overtake Avoca/Prattsburgh’s lead.

“We had a couple of girls come in and give us some amazing minutes. Graci and Addison (Morgan) came in and did a great job defensively to help set us up, and Graci got some points to add to it as well. They lined up really well with some mismatches that we had. In the second quarter, we prevented them from getting the second-chance points, and then our offense opened up shortly after that,” Andover/Whitesville co-coach Jake Bannerman said. “We were flying. The rest of the team had half our points behind Vanessa, and for us that was huge. A lot of girls stepped up tonight, and that’s a testament to how hard the girls have worked. They all bought in.”

With key contributions flooding the hardwood from all different angles, the once six-point deficit became a seven-point, 30-23 lead for Andover/Whitesville lead to control, going into the break.

But then, the game took a big turn.

Turnovers, as well as a few offensive rebounds, began to become a regular occurrence, mainly for Andover/Whitesville, as Avoca/Prattsburgh buckled in with some huge third quarter defense. Kamryn Edwards started it all off for the team in maroon with a put-back off an offensive board that would close the gap to one. On the next possession, they were given the lead off a long Laura Morera three-pointer.

But when the quarter reached its end, it would reach even playing ground going into the last eight minutes, with Rachel Jackson helping the cause one more time on a long three-pointer to force a 37-37 tie — a similar situation from Monday night against the Lady Lancers.

“32 minutes in a game doesn’t feel like 32 minutes, but in the second half, it felt like it took forever,” said Bannerman. “It was a tough grind, and we played probably our best defensive game as far as matchups in man-to-man coverage for 32 minutes. We had to give up some height for it, but they worked their tails off.”

Rawady added, “Credit to Avoca/Prattsburgh, they worked so hard tonight. It took everything we had to beat them. They’re so tough defensively, they forced a bunch of turnovers that really killed us, they were strong on the perimeter on defense. They really made us work, and nothing was free. Jeff (Gilbert) does an incredible job with his teams every year. They gave us a battle.”

It would set up a fourth quarter that would set Andover/Whitesville apart from Avoca/Prattsburgh. The No. 2 seeds wasted no time striking while the iron was already hot on the stove, as they extinguished Avoca/Prattsburgh’s fiery third quarter run with sublime stands of defense, as well as scoring the first seven points on the attack right out of the gate — five of those points belonging to Vanessa Hall, including a three from downtown to extend the team’s lead to seven.

Hall would finish with Class D2 MVP honors behind a game-high 24 point effort for the team in white and purple.

“Vanessa was big for us again,” Rawady said. “She saw multiple looks defensively, and so many teams throw all sorts of defenses at her. When she sees a look, it’s something that she’s seen 10 times before, no matter what it is. She’s used to that, and the girls do a great job adjusting to that as well. They know where to give Vanessa the ball, and if they can’t do that right away, they move the ball around extremely well, and knock down some big shots when they need to. Tonight, they did that.”

It was a newly-founded lead that was never returned to Avoca/Prattsburgh, despite some late pressure down the stretch with a minute left to play, trimming the deficit down to as little as three. But in the end, some clutch free throw shooting from Hall, who sank one of two at the stripe pushed the game to two possessions with nine seconds remaining on the clock.

On the final play, Gabbi Hall put a bow on Andover/Whitesville’s Title with a steal immediately after an inbound, breaking away towards the basket for the lay-in to give them all the room they needed to lock down the team’s first Championship together.

Finishing behind Hall was Jackson, who recorded eight total points. Gabbi Hall collected six points, while Riloba concluded with five.

With the victory, Andover/Whitesville now waits in the wing for their opposition in the Class D State Qualifier after the weekend.

As for who they were going to face in the Qualifier, that was to be determined in the nightcap — the Class D1 Final. There was a possibility that Andover/Whitesville could meet a team that they have seen twice already, and perhaps a chance they would see a complete unknown.

That was between Notre Dame-Batavia — Class D1’s defending champion, and top-seeded and unbeaten Fillmore, to decide.

The Lady Eagles have had a tremendous ride all throughout the year, having never found the loss column once this year. Their efforts day in and day out have earned them the position of being Class D’s top-ranked team in New York State, as well as their seventh-straight Allegany County Division I Championship and Class D1’s top seed for the third time in the last four years.

To complete a titanic season that the Lady Eagles have had all year, their chance to collect their second Class D1 title in four years was on the horizon. To get to the end, No. 2 Notre Dame-Batavia, who survived an incredible, hard-fought defensive battle against Genesee Valley/Belfast this past Monday in the Semifinals, stood in the way.

Like themselves, the Lady Irish were also as defensive-minded as a team as they come. They would make that known almost right out of the gate.

Fillmore was star-struck right from the opening tip, as Notre Dame-Batavia hit them with everything from the kitchen sink, to the entire house itself, as the Lady Irish doubled down on a 2-3 zone that became incredibly stifling as time went on, translating the defensive prowess on the attack back the other way with as hot of a start as possible, taking a double-digit lead and never letting go to send the Lady Eagles home packing with their first loss of the season, claiming back-to-back Class D1 titles along the way with a 39-25 victory.

“They’re a very talented and tough team. It’s too bad they saved it all up for us, but not to take anything away from them but I haven’t seen a spurt like that ever,” said Lady Eagles coach Tom Parks. “I thought the girls played well with their energy and effort, but when teams are knocking down shots with a hand in your face, you can’t do much other than try and score to keep up with them. We couldn’t do that at all, and that’s credit where credit is due with their overwhelming 2-3 zone. They limited us, and if we had shots to knock down, that’s basically all we could have done to stay with them.”

Notre Dame-Batavia’s presence was felt right away against Fillmore (22-1), as they connected with an 11-2 run through the first four minutes, led by a pair of threes off the hands of Judah MacDonald and Maylee Green to power the electric Lady Irish first quarter.

The run soon saw the Lady Eagles behind the eight-ball early, but saw their deficit climb down to eight after Jadyn Mucher launched one of three three-pointers right before the end of the frame to help the team get back to within reach.

It’s a position Fillmore had been in once before with the slow start, but this time around, Notre Dame-Batavia made sure it remained permanent. With their 2-3 zone continuing to stymie the Lady Eagles and their ability to run the offense, the lead for the Lady Irish grew almost insurmountably right before halftime, netting another scoreless run of the top seeds to grow their advantage to as much as 14, using their defense to force multiple capitalizations off a bounty of turnovers.

The end result was a 25-11 lead for the No. 2 seeds going into the break.

“That’s always hard to recover from after playing well on defense,” said Parks. “They stuck it right to us with those early threes, and it knocks you on your heels. It made us a bit timid on offense, and I thought coming into this game that this would be a game where it would be somewhere in the 30’s. But unfortunately, we just could not do our part to make that happen.”

The hope for the Lady Eagles was to put the first half in the rearview mirror, and start fresh against Notre Dame-Batavia when the third quarter began. But it would soon turn into a defensive battle for much of the quarter, with both teams not scoring a single basket until the two-minute mark when Fillmore finally managed to break the ice with a pair of buckets from Emma Cole down low while breaking free from the Lady Irish defense along the way.

The response — a 15-point lead at the end of the third quarter for Notre Dame-Batavia, as they scored the quarter’s final five points in a row, including a devastating three-pointer from MacDonald right near the buzzer.

“We talked about in their hot start, the law of averages. They were going to cool off, and we wanted to come out and score in the second half,” said Parks. “We had to chip away to get it under 10 points going into the fourth quarter. No team scored for over half the quarter. They cooled off, and our defense was good, but we just could not buy our own buckets. When we did cut it to 10, it stopped the bleeding, but we didn’t get anymore after that.”

The Lady Eagles put one last effort on the table to start the fourth quarter, stopping the bleeding partially with seven of the final frame’s first 10 points, with Mucher leading the charge once more behind her third and final three-pointer that had cut the deficit to 10 at that point.

Mucher would finish as Fillmore’s leading scorer with a game-high 16 points.

But the Lady Eagles in the end, would run out of time, as the Lady Irish continued onward with their stout defensive stands to keep Fillmore at bay, locking up their second straight Class D1 Championship by sending New York State’s top Class D team home packing with a 14-point win.

After the final buzzer rang out, Parks shared one last moment with long embraces of two of the team’s biggest pieces behind all of their success this season — Mucher and Emma Cole, two Seniors out of the four that the team will lose to Graduation this June, as they join teammates Zoe Beardsley and Hannah Tanner in departing the school.

Holding back tears, Parks simply reflected on the memories his Seniors have given him over the years.

“I just wanted to share with them how much they have meant to me,” he said. “Even outside of basketball, I coached Jadyn and Emma as seventh and eighth graders in volleyball. And little kids basketball before that. Being their co-coach at the JV level, and their coach now in basketball, I’ve been to almost every sporting event they’ve ever been in. Emma plays golf for me in the Spring. They’re two really meaningful Seniors. Emma’s our MVP, and she works her butt off, and the same with Jadyn. Zoe Beardsley came back to play basketball for us as a Senior, and then Hannah (Tanner) in her first year playing with us.”

Cole was limited to a game-low six points for the Lady Eagles by the Lady Irish’s defensive efforts. Rounding off the scoring was Hope Russell, who had a three-pointer.

Fillmore’s incredible ride through the 2021-22 season has come to an end, as they wrap up a campaign that saw them go 22-1 overall, clinching their seventh straight Allegany County Division I Championship along the way. Looking back, Parks says that after going 7-5 in their COVID-shortened season a year ago, he never dreamed of getting back to the position they wound up returning to again.

“It’s so incredible. We were 7-5 last year with some good players, and I didn’t dream that we would be on this stage after that,” he said. “I thought we could get there with some growth, but we can’t take any of that for granted. It sucks not finishing it out. 22-0, League Champions, No. 1 in the State, we set our standards really high at Fillmore. To think that we underachieved somehow would be foolish to say. Although we didn’t come away as champions, we’ve accomplished so much. It’s an incredible season, and it’s a testament to these kids, these Seniors, the underclassmen that worked their butts off. You don’t get to 22 wins in a fluke.”

The Class D State Qualifier is set to feature Class D2 Champion Andover/Whitesville and Class D1 Champion Notre Dame-Batavia, with the winner heading to partake in the Far West Regional, which will take place next weekend at a site and time to be determined. As for more info on the Qualifier game itself, no updated information was made available upon publication.

Looking ahead to the game for Andover/Whitesville, Rawady says that it will be no different than the two hard-fought battles they have had already against both Elba and Avoca/Prattsburgh, even with Notre Dame-Batavia holding a question mark.

“It’s going to be another battle, just like the last two games that we’ve had,” he said. “Notre Dame-Batavia is a question mark. We’ve seen them on film a few times, but not in person until tonight. But it’s going to be as tough of a fight as we’ve had before. If we’re playing one more game, something must have went well tonight. For our Seniors, it’s given them another chance to play some more basketball.”

Class D2 Final

Avoca/Prattsburgh 16 7 14 6 – 43

Andover/Whitesville 10 20 7 12 – 49

AVOCA/PRATTSBURGH: Kamryn Edwards 3 0-6 8, Kendra Pinckney 4 1-1 10, Riley Stowe 5 4-4 14, Laura Morera 3 0-2 7, Marissa Reid 1 0-0 2, Susie Moore 1 0-0 2. Totals: 17 7-13 43.

ANDOVER/WHITESVILLE: Gabbi Hall 3 0-0 6, Vanessa Hall 7 6-8 24, Graci Lewis-Ellison 2 0-0 4, Rachel Jackson 2 2-2 8, Addison Morgan 1 0-0 2, Maria Riloba 2 0-0 5. Totals: 17 8-10 49.

3-point goals: A/P 2 (Pinckney, Morera), A/W 7 (V. Hall 4, Jackson 2, Riloba).
Total Fouls: A/P 14, A/W 13. Fouled out: None.


Class D1 Final

Notre Dame-Batavia 14 11 5 9 – 39

Fillmore 6 5 4 10 – 25

ND-BATAVIA: Emma Sisson 5 3-4 13, Avelin Tomidy 2 0-0 5, Maylee Green 2 0-0 6, Judah MacDonald 3 1-2 9, Lindsey Weidman 1 4-6 6. Totals: 13 8-12 39.

FILLMORE: Hope Russell 1 0-0 3, Jadyn Mucher 4 5-9 16, Emma Cole 3 0-4 6. Totals: 8 5-13 25.
3-point goals: ND-B 5 (Green 2, MacDonald 2, Tomidy), Fillmore 4 (Mucher 3, Russell).
Total Fouls: ND-B 12, Fillmore 11. Fouled out: Green (ND-B).

Chris Brooks
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