SYRACUSE — There was a great deal to overcome Saturday and the Albany girls’ basketball team was so close to making it happen. The Falcons traded the lead with Liverpool five times during the fourth quarter and entered their final possession needing three points to tie.
Both of the 3-point attempts Albany took in the final 15 seconds were blocked. The Warriors then scored a breakaway basket with less than a second left to emerge with a hard-fought 56-51 victory over the Falcons in the Class AA state quarterfinals at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
The Falcons, a squad that defeated Liverpool in December, concluded its season at 20-4. The loss marked the second straight season Albany fell in the state quarterfinal round. Saturday, a 3-pointer by Iyana Weeden provided the Falcons a 49-47 advantage with just more than three minutes left. The final four possessions for the Falcons resulted in five misses (three on 3-pointers) and a basket by sophomore point guard Azera Gates.
“We feel like we forced it a little bit at the end,” said Albany senior forward Shonyae Edmonds, who delivered 21 points an 12 rebounds in her final varsity contest.
Liverpool (21-3) advances to the state final four next week at Hudson Valley Community College. The Falcons were upset after attempting just 13 free throws compared to 31 by the Warriors.
“It was not a fun talk,” Albany coach Decky Lawson said after coming out of the team’s locker room. “We want our girls to reflect and learn from these type of situations. We always talk about the things we could have controlled. We can’t blame anyone else at this moment, no matter what the foul differential was. We let them know about things we could control. We missed some free throws, we missed a couple of layups and a few rebounding opportunities that we should have got.”
“We tried our hardest and pushed every…
Read the full article here