By PAUL GOTHAM
LIVONIA, N.Y. — Late in the third quarter of Thursday’s Class B2 quarter-final, a one-time 13-point Livonia lead had been reduced to two.
It appeared for a brief moment that the task of beating a league rival three times in one season would prove too much.
Kylie Buckley would have nothing of it.
The junior forward scored 14 of her game-high 28 points over the final 8:26 of game time. In doing so, she broke the program career scoring mark and helped clinch a spot in Monday’s semi-final.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM RON ANDREWS HERE.
“I just didn’t want to lose,” she said. “I wanted to get going. I wanted to get to the semis. It feels amazing right now to win.”
Clinging to a 31-29 edge, Buckley closed the third quarter with an and-one before starting the fourth-quarter offense with a finish in the lane. The 6-foot forward converted on an inbound play before and then drove the baseline for two more. With her pull-up jumper midway through the final stanza a two-point edge had grown into a 46-34 commanding lead.
Kylie Buckley gets the baseline to give Livonia a 42-34 lead with under 4 to play. pic.twitter.com/TuBzL0SjIu
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 25, 2022
“She decided to take the ball to the basket,” Livonia head coach Karen Schuster explained. “She’s very good one-on-one. She’s so strong she can power the ball in.”
Buckley connected 12 times from the floor in the game.
“When they double-teamed me, I just kick it out,” she said of her approach late in the game. “I have my guards who can shoot. It kinda worked for us.”
Buckley set up teammate Madison King for the first points of the third quarter. Emma King followed with a rebound and putback to give Livonia its largest lead to that point at 29-16.
Haverling rallied.
Sydney Burns and Raegan Faulkner hit back-to-back baseline jumpers. Gillian Oksinski connected on a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to six. Meredith Czajkowski and Faulkner scored on consecutive possessions to make it a two-point game at 31-29.
Meredith Czajkowski hits the jumper. Reagan Faulkner follows with a corner trey. But Kylie Buckley answers with an and-one. Heading to the 4th: Livonia 34 Haverling 29 pic.twitter.com/YsgHbDUNns
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 25, 2022
“We just needed to settled down a little,” Schuster said. “The first sectional game, we hadn’t played in 10 days. It’s the third time playing them this year. So it’s always tough. We know each other very well. We just needed to settled down, run our sets and get some stops. That was the difference in the game.”
Czajkowski, Haverling’s leading scorer, finished with 12 points on the night. Livonia limited the junior guard to two field goals in the second half.
“She’s a great player,” Schuster said of the Haverling Ram. “She’s extremely quick, very athletic. Our game plan was to contain her. I thought we did a pretty good job. A few times we let her loose and she scored, I thought all-in-all we did real nice job containing her.”
Buckley corralled 21 rebounds in the win to go with six blocks, five assists and three steals.
“She doesn’t like to lose, so she’s going to make sure that she goes hard and finishes,” Schuster commented.
With Thursday’s total, Buckley increased her career points to 1,270 passing former Livonia Bulldog Caitlin MacPherson (2002) who scored 1,260 during her time on the floor at Livonia.
Madison King finished with 10 points for Livonia. Emma King had eight. Libby Kwak scored four.
Faulkner paced the Haverling offense with 15 points. Oksinski had six. Burns contributed four points while Emma Luckenbach had three points.
Sydney Burns connects from the corner , but Haverling trails Livonia 14-8 heading to the second quarter. pic.twitter.com/NH6pTwa3z9
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 25, 2022
Livonia will play the winner of the No. 3 Wellsville vs. No. 6 Attica game.
Leave a Reply