BY MIKE ROSE
Only one member of the Hornell Red Raiders starting five entering championship Saturday averaging less than 10 points per game. It was that player, Selena Maldonado, who shined when the lights were brightest, scoring 25 points as the Red Raiders defeated Dansville to win their second straight sectional title, 44-36. The tournament MVP was thrilled her team’s hard work had yielded results.
“Just full of excitement and joy because we’ve been working hard for this all season, this is what we wanted so it was just excitement, joy and relief that it finally paid off,” Maldonado said.
Hornell’s leading scorer Jordyn Dyring went down with a left knee injury with 5:16 to play in the first quarter and things never quite got in sync from there. The Red Raiders shot 4-for-21 from three in the game, scored a season-low 44 points and trailed at the end of each of the first three quarters. Despite all of this Hornell found a way to win. Head coach James Dagon credited his team’s fight on Saturday.
“Their toughness physically and mentally was unbelievable today,” Dagon said. “Jordan went down early in the game and she does so much for us and the rest of the girls just knew they had to band together and it wasn’t going to be any individual effort, it was gonna be a collective for the rest of the game and they never lost faith the whole time, in each other or in themselves. I’m just super, super proud of the way they performed.”
The Mustangs fell behind early but raced ahead aided by a 10-0 run in the first. The Mustangs maintained a slim edge and took a three-point lead into halftime.
Out of the locker room, Maldonado came alive. After scoring just five in the first half she took over in the third quarter scoring all 10 Hornell points to cut the deficit to one entering the fourth quarter where she saved her best for last.
“She’s an unbelievably tough kid and unselfish kid and she’s so used to just creating for everyone else that they put her in a position that she had to be the one to score today,” Dagon said. “It was out of her comfort zone to start the game, I think she only had five or seven in the first half and then she understood ok this is my time to go and score. It’s not her normal nature to do that so it took a little bit of encouragement but once she got on a roll I knew that we had it in the bag.”
Dansville had played to let Maldonado shoot three-pointers throughout the game and she made her looks count in the fourth. She drilled her first three-pointer of the game to open the fourth and give Hornell the lead back for the first time since early in the second quarter. After Chelsie Tyler answered with a bucket, Lillian Hoyt chased down an offensive rebound and put it back in to give the Red Raiders the lead for good. Maldonado would connect on two more triples in the fourth before Reagan Evingham iced the game with three free-throws late.
“They were playing me so deep back I was like ‘if you’re giving me this I’m gonna take it’ and I know some of them didn’t fall in but once some of them did fall in and I just kept getting them and shooting them up there and having confidence with that,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado finished as the lone Red Raider in double figures. Tayler Hamsher and Chelsie Tyler each scored 10 for Dansville while Aynsley Belcher added eight points and 11 rebounds.
Hornell advances to the Class B Far West Regional on Saturday, March 9 at Finger Lakes Community College against the representative from Section VI.
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