UV And Sherburne-Earlville Land In Championship Game Behind Dominating Wins
Published: December 28th, 2017
By: Meagan Schulz

Frank Speziale Photo

NEW BERLIN – A 35 point win for the Lady Storm and 19 point margin for the Lady Marauders give the Unadilla Valley Holiday Tournament an inter-county championship game set for Thursday evening.

Sherburne-Earlville played the first game of the girls opening round of the Holiday Tournament and it was a little shakey to start.

Hamilton’s Beth Belanger and Lauren LaRuffa knocked down shots from behind the arc to give an 6-0 lead for the Emerald Knights.

But that ended up being the only lead for Hamilton as the Lady Marauders answered with a 9-0 run to round out the first quarter of play.

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Sherburne-Earlville scored 12 in the second stanza behind Tessa Cole’s six and Kaitlyn Furner’s four while Hamilton balanced scoring throughout the team, keeping the game for the Emerald Knights within reach. The Marauders lead at the half was just four points.

S-E seperated themselves from Hamilton as Sophia Khory scored eight of her total 10 points in the third quarter and Cole added 10 more points to her scoring total, giving the Lady Marauders a 10 point lead heading into the final eight minutes of play.

Sherburne-Earlville held the Emerald Knights to just four points in the fourth while Cole outscored Hamilton with five. Cole finished the afternoon with a game-high 23 points.

Furner chimmed in nine points and controlled the boards, pulling in 14 rebounds. Belanger hit three three-pointers to give her a team-high nine points in Hamilton’s loss.

Sherburne-Earlville then had to wait until the final game of the quad-header to find out who they would face in the finals on Thursday.

The last game matchup was between the host Unadilla Valley Storm and neighbors from just up Route 8, the Gilberstville-Mount Upton Eagles.

The contest was controlled by the Lady Storm early as UV opened the game leading 13-3 after the first quarter. Their aggressive, pressuring defense led to four of their five starters scoring in the few minutes of the contest.

The Eagles got their first bucket of the game from Hunter Christian, who was left unguarded on her way to the hoop. Kaitlyn Fuller added a foul-shot in the first quarter to give GMU their three points in the first eight minutes of play.