By MIKE ROSE
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — In a game where every basket came at a premium, No. 6 Aquinas came away with just enough to knock off No. 1 Pittsford Sutherland, 43-41. The Li’l Irish captured their fifth sectional championship in program history and their first since winning the Class A2 title in 2018. Aquinas head coach Mark Loria was proud of his team’s fight to break through.
“It means a lot because nobody knows the story over the last three years with these girls,” Loria said. “We’ve had some ups and we’ve had a lot of valleys and it could’ve went either way but they stuck with it. We got to the base of the mountain and now we’re starting to climb it.”
Early on Sutherland took a 7-0 lead before the Li’l Irish scored the next five to trail by two after one quarter of play. Aquinas kept the momentum rolling into the second capping off an 11-0 run and taking a lead they did not surrender again the rest of the night. Jade Harvey scored four of Aquinas’ 12 points in the second as the lead was extended to six at the break.
Out of the locker room eventual tournament MVP Loren Green put her stamp on the game. She posted nine of her team-high 11 in the quarter as the lead ballooned to as many as 12
“My coach just tells me we need a bucket, you know he’ll tell me you gotta take over the game for us and that’s what I did,” Green said.
“She’s prepared for this for the last three years, since the seventh-grade year,” Loria said. “last year she got injured early but you saw the maturation from the start of the year until now and you know she’s just a big-time clutch player. What more can I say about her.”
The Knights would not go quietly, however. Leora Cook was fouled on a three as time expired in the third and after connecting on all three free throws the margin was seven heading to the fourth.
Cook, who led Sutherland with 12 points, scored again to trim the lead to four before Jade Harvey responded with a triple to extend the lead back to seven. Aquinas maintained control down the stretch until Petra Hunt drilled a three-pointer to make it a two-point game. Molly O’Toole knocked down two free throws to extend the lead to four.
A steal and a lay-up by Cook cut the lead back down to two with seconds to play but Sutherland could not foul before the clock expired as Aquinas hung on.
” We have not been in a game like this all year and I know probably Pittsford Sutherland has not had a game like this all year it was just one of those games where the ball wasn’t going in but the constant was our defense,” Loria said. “That’s something that we’ve preached that we were gonna tighten up our defense and we’re gonna create as much havoc as we possibly can.”
Green expressed how much the title-winning performance meant.
“This means a lot to me,” Green said. “I’ve been playing since seventh grade and a lot of people doubted me and doubted my coach that he played three seventh graders and started us but you know we did this for him and we really did our big one today.”
AJ Orr finished with 10 points and was named to the all-tournament team while O’Toole scored six in the game while joining Orr and Green on the all-tournament team. Hunt and Eden Lewis were named to the all-tournament team for Sutherland. Hunt finished with 10 points while Lewis recorded eight points and eight rebounds.
Aquinas advances to the Class A Far West Regionals on March 9 at Fingers Lakes Community College against the Section VI representative.
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