TROY —Stylianna Mantzouris hit the floor diving for a loose ball during the final minute Friday afternoon as if her effort had a state Class B girls’ basketball championship attached to it. The scoreboard said otherwise, yet it could not prevent the senior from Albany Academy for Girls from providing maximum effort. An example was being set.
Putnam Valley showed why it entered the state semifinal game as the state’s top-ranked Class B squad by registering a convincing 70-50 victory over the Bears at Hudson Valley Community College’s McDonough Sports Complex.
The Tigers (26-1) will meet Waterloo (25-1), a 73-50 winner over Cortland, for the state title at 5:15 p.m. Saturday. Albany Academy for Girls finished its historic campaign with a 24-2 record, a Colonial Council championship, with first sectional and regional titles to go along with an appearance in the state semifinals.
As much as the loss stings, there are so many positives for the Bears to take with them from HVCC.
“I think the biggest for me wasn’t even the loss, it is the fact I am not going to see my teammates every single day at practice, having team sleepovers, not getting prepared for games, getting hyped in the locker room and getting hyped on the bus,” said Mantzouris, one of the Bears’ three senior starters along with guards Saige Randolph and Erin Huban. They saw their scholastic basketball careers conclude Friday. “I’m going to miss my coaches, and being coached, and being around an amazing group of people every day.”
“I am so proud of these guys,” AAG third-year coach Bryan Capitula said. “At halftime, they were mad and said, ‘We’re not out of this game.’ The players took over with me having to say little. We didn’t play well in the first half. These kids care so much about each other, they were going to have each other’s back no matter what the score was. They were going to keep going,…
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