BY MIKE ROSE
RUSHVILLE, N.Y. — It was standing room only for round three of the battle between Class C1 champion Bloomfield and Class C2 champion Dundee/Bradford and it was the BraveScots whose second-half rally propelled them to a 57-50 victory. With the game tied at 41, Kailey Yeoman connected on a three-pointer to give the BraveScots the lead for good. With the win, Dundee/Bradford advances to the Far West Regionals for the first time in the merged program’s history.
“We were just really mentally tough,” Yeoman said. “In the locker room, we honestly weren’t negative at all, which is a huge step from previous years. It was just a really good game and our team is there for each other all the time.”
With nearly both towns making the trip for the rubber match, tensions were high on both sides Tuesday night. Bloomfield took the early edge with Lily Baughman eclipsing 1,000 career points on her first field goal of the night. It was the combination of Ashlyn Wright and Calla McCombs who powered the Bombers through the opening 16 minutes. The duo posted 17 points and 12 rebounds in the first half as Bloomfield led 27-20 at the break. Dundee/Bradford shot 26 percent from the floor in the first half.
“The biggest thing offensively that I shared with them is that we weren’t hitting shots that we usually hit, wide-open threes, layups that we typically make just weren’t going in,” Dundee/Bradford co-head coach Michael Strait said. “I emphasized to them, they’re gonna fall. You gotta shoot with confidence all the time, we shoot a lot in practice, they’re gonna fall and when we started hitting shots in the third quarter we just kept it going.”
Out of the break, Kendall Parker made her mark on the game. Parker scored eight of her 15 points in the third as Dundee/Bradford outscored Bloomfield 19-10. The BraveScots carried a two-point edge into the fourth. Yeoman’s go-ahead triple came with 5:10 to play. It was the second three-pointer of the game for the BraveScots and it came after Yeoman missed her first eight three-point attempts of the night.
“She was one of the ones I made eye contact with in the locker room because she was getting some open threes in the corner,” Strait said. “I’m like ‘you’re gonna hit shots, keep shooting with confidence you’re gonna hit a big shot for us and it’s gonna matter’ and she certainly kept her confidence in herself.”
Baughman scored seven in the fourth to try to keep Bloomfield within striking distance but the BraveScots held firm. Mikayla Schoffner and Bruna Crespo put the game away down the stretch scoring eight of the final 13 points for Dundee/Bradford.
Crespo led Dundee/Bradford with 17 points while Yeoman finished with 11. Schoffner added 10 points for D/B. For Bloomfield, Baughman scored 15 points, Ashlyn Wright tallied 13 and Calla McCombs had 10.
Parker and Yeoman were grateful for the support of their fan base who packed Marcus Whitman High School Tuesday night.
“It’s just amazing,” Yeoman said. “Like they all have our backs and this is really big because we’re in a small town so nothing really exciting happens but they just love us and we love them and they want to show their support to us.”
“We literally have a gas station and that’s like the hangout place,” Parker said. “To have something going on and have a team do something big, especially for the girls, it’s just so big.”
Dundee/Bradford now sits just one game from reaching its first state final four in program history.
“It means a lot, I don’t even know how to explain it,” Yeoman said. “We’ve been working so hard to even just try to win a sectional final game and we finally got over that so it’s really exciting for all of us and our huge family here.”
The BraveScots will take on Section VI champion Frewsburg (20-3) in the New York State Class C Far West Regional on Saturday at Finger Lakes Community College. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
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