Southern Tier Sports ReportYORKTOWN — The season came to an end for the Elmira girls’ basketball team as they fell to the state’s top-ranked public school Albertus Magnus 76-37 in state regionals.
Albertus Magnus, last year’s state champions in AA, were led by junior Julia Scott, the reigning state player of the year with 35 division 1 offers.
Scott is a 6-foot, 2-inch forward that is ranked by 24/7 as a 95-rated, four-star recruit, ranked as the 30th best recruit in the nation.
“Not exactly the end we were expecting today,” Elmira coach A’Don Allen said. “But, Albertus was definitely as advertised. I’m proud the girls fought hard until the end. When you struggle to score against a good team like this it can get out of hand. And, unfortunately, they did a really good job of getting us out of our comfort area offensively.
“Defensively, there’s a reason Julia Scott was the state player of the year last year and probably going to be in the running for it again this year. She as as good as advertised and her teammates play extremely well off of her.”
While this isn’t the way Elmira wanted their season to end, Allen knows it was a good year for his team.
“It’s a tough end to the year, but I’m extremely proud of this team for what they accomplished this year with this group,” Allen said. “Replacing seven seniors last year and having two underclassmen in our starting lineup and different kids playing new roles to be able to still win a sectional championship and get to the state playoffs is a good season, indeed.
“For our six outgoing seniors, they have done nothing but represent this program as well as they possibly could over the last four years. It’s going to be a tough class to replace, and I thank them all for their effort the last four and a couple of them six years.
“For our returners, the message is going to be we like getting to this game, but now it’s about getting better to get past this game, so that will be a point of emphasis in this offseason. But, anytime you can end your season in the state playoffs is better than not.”
Albertus Magus led 21-10 after one quarter, but they outscored Elmira 20-5 in the second and 44-14 the next two quarters to pull away.
Mariah Matias had 19 for Elmira, including seven, with a three, in the opening quarter.
Alyvia Woodruff and Addison Taft each had eight points. Taft had a three and was 3-for-4 from the line and Woodruff had two threes. Alyvia Heath had two points.
Scott led Albertus Magus with 26 points, all in the first three quarters. She had 13 of her team’s 21 in the opening quarter, and she outscored Elmira in the quarter and matched Elmira with 18 first-half points.
Riley Harold had 14, with two threes, for Albertus Magus and Sara Neman had 11 points, with a three.
