SARATOGA SPRINGS – Few area teams were rewarded by the Section II girls basketball committee when the pairings for the upcoming Section II basketball tournaments were created during Wednesday’s seeding meeting at the Holiday Inn in Saratoga Springs.
The Johnstown Lady Bills will enter the Section II Class B tournament on a bit of a roll after knocking off Foothills Council champion Queensbury in their regular-season finale Tuesday night.
The Lady Bills earned the seventh seed in the tournament and will get a final home game Wednesday against No. 10 Greenville at 6 p.m.
“I think we landed where we should be,” Johnstown coach Tim Derwin said. “I didn’t want to be in the eight or nine bracket because then we would have had to play the No. 1 seed early. We didn’t play well enough early to get better.”
The Lady Bills’ season got off to a rough start and they didn’t reach the .500 mark until Jan. 30 when they defeated Stillwater for the second time this season, 39-24. They ended the season by winning seven of their last nine games, which includes Tuesday’s 42-37 win over Queensbury.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Derwin said. “I think our win [Tuesday] night brought us to the next level. We’ve been playing well but last night’s game we got to the next level.”
They’ve avenged most of their losses with league wins over not only Queensbury, but Scotia-Glenville, Hudson Falls and Broadalbin-Perth.
“We’ve had some kids that eight or 10 games ago weren’t contributing but are now,” Derwin said. “Annie Stock is starting now. Hope Cerasuolo was recovering from pneumonia early and is averaging eight or 10 points. Emma Heroth is finding her mark in a lot of physical categories, including scoring. Everybody is doing a little more.”
While the Lady Bills would avoid the tournament’s top seed, the Watervliet Lady Canoneers, until the championship game should they advance that far, Broadalbin-Perth is not that fortunate.
The ninth-seeded Lady Patriots will open the tournament in Rotterdam to face the No. 8 Schalmont Lady Sabres. A win will likely send them to Watervliet for a 7:30 p.m. game on Feb. 23.
The No. 14 Fonda-Fultonville Lady Braves will open the tournament Friday night with a play-in game against No. 19 Cairo-Durham.
A win Friday will send them to visit third-seeded Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk on Tuesday for a first-round contest.
The area team with the best record, the Fort Plain Lady Hilltoppers, was stung after finishing the regular season with a 15-2 record.
They lost their last game of the regular season, the Western Athletic Conference Cup semifinals in devastating fashion as Haley Kilmartin missed two foul shots with the Lady Hilltoppers trailing by one.
The committee was not impressed with Fort Plain’s record and the Lady Hilltoppers were seeded eighth in Class C and will host Lake George at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“It hurts us every year when that happens,” Fort Plain coach Phil Karker said after Tuesday night’s loss. “You don’t want to say it’s the competition but I think that has a lot to do with it. They’re in battles every night and we really aren’t. They say ‘schedule someone better, but we don’t have any room in the schedule the way the funding is. I tried to schedule some As and Bs this year and they didn’t want to play us.”
A win Tuesday could send the Lady Hilltoppers up against top-seeded Hoosic Valley on Feb. 22.
Both the Canajoharie Lady Cougars and the Mayfield Lady Panthers will open the tournament Friday. Canajoharie earned the 14th seed and will host No. 19 Whitehall at 6 p.m. Friday, while No. 20 Mayfield will pay a visit to No. 13 Voorheesville.
A win will send the Lady Cougars to face Berne-Knox-Westerlo, while Mayfield will see No. 4 Hoosick Falls if it gets past Voorheesville.
The area’s highest-seeded team is the Northville Lady Falcons, who finished the regular season with a 6-12 record and were fourth in the WAC North and earned the No. 5 seed in Class D.
They will travel to Fort Edward for the first game of a girls/boys doubleheader Feb. 22.
They will face No. 4 Warrensburg at 6 p.m. and top-seeded Fort Edward will face the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 8 North Warren and No. 9 Germantown.
The winners will go to SUNY Adirondack on Feb. 26.
In class A, the Amsterdam Lady Rams earned the No. 9 seed and will visit South Glens Falls on Wednesday. The winner will face the top-seeded Troy Lady Horses.
In Section III, Dolgeville (9-9 overall) earned the seventh seed in the Class C-2 Tournament. The Blue Devils will travel to second-seeded Weedsport (15-3) on Friday for a 7 p.m. contest,
Section II Girls Basketball
Class AA
First Round
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m.
Game 1: S7. Niskayuna at S4. Shenendehowa
Game 2: S6. Guilderland at S5. Columbia
Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb. 22
at Albany H.S.
Game 3: B3. Bishop Maginn vs. S2. Shaker, 6 p.m.
Game 4: Game 1 winner at B1. Albany, 7:30 p.m.
at Bethlehem H.S.
Game 5: S3. Colonie vs. B2. Catholic Central, 6 p.m.
Game 6: Game 2 winner at S1. Bethlehem, 7:30 p.m.
Semifinals
Wednesday, Feb. 27
at Hudson Valley CC
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 8: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 6 p.m.
Championship
Monday, March 4, 6 p.m.
at Times Union Center, Albany
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner
Class A
First Round
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6 p.m.
Game 1 : No. 9 Amsterdam at No. 8 South Glens Falls
Quarterfinals
Saturday, Feb. 23
at Troy H.S.
Game 2: Game 1 winner at No. 1 Troy, 7:30 p.m.
Game 3: No. 5 Mohonasen vs. No. 4 Queensbury, 6 p.m.
at Holy Names
Game 4: No. 7 Scotia-Glenville at No. 2 Holy Names, 7:30 p.m.
Game 5: No. 6 Glens Falls vs. No. 3 Averill Park, 6 p.m.
Semifinals
Tuesday, Feb. 26
at Colonie H.S.
Game 6: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, March 2, 3:30 p.m.
at Hudson Valley CC
Game 8: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner
Class B
Play-ins
Friday, Feb. 15, 6 p.m.
Game 1: No. 17 Schuylerville at No. 16 Emma Willard
Game 2: No. 20 Bishop Gibbons at No. 13 Ichabod Crane
Game 3: No. 21 Coxsackie-Athens at No. 12 Catskill
Game 4: No. 18 Albany Leadership at No. 15 Corinth
Game 5: No. 19 Cairo-Durham at No. 14 Fonda-Fultonville
First Round
Tuesday, Feb. 19
Game 6: Game 1 winner at No. 1 Watervliet, 7:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 2 winner at No. 4 Cohoes, 6 p.m.
Game 8: Game 5 winner at 3 Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6 p.m.
Game 9: No. 9 Broadalbin-Perth at No. 8 Schalmont
Game 10: Game 3 winner at No. 5 Taconic Hills
Game 11: Game 4 winner at No. 2 Tamarac
Game 12: No. 10 Greenville at No. 7 Johnstown
Game 13: No. 11 Hudson at No. 6 Hudson Falls
Quarterfinals
Saturday, Feb. 23
at highest seed
Game 14: Game 9 winner vs. Game 6 winner, TBA
Game 15: Game 10 winner vs. Game 7 winner, TBA
at highest seed
Game 16: Game 8 winner vs. Game 13 winner, TBA
Game 17: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, TBA
Semifinals
Wednesday, Feb. 27
at Rensselaer H.S.
Game 18: Game 14 winner vs. Game 15 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 19: Game 16 winner vs. Game 17 winner, 6 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, March 2, 1:45 p.m.
at Hudson Valley CC
Game 20: Game 18 winner vs. Game 19 winner
Class C
Play-ins
Friday, Feb. 15, 6 p.m.
Game 1: No. 17 Stillwater at No 16 Middleburgh
Game 2: No. 20 Mayfield at No. 13 Voorheesville
Game 3: No. 21 Saratoga Catholic at No. 12 Galway
Game 4: No. 18 Schoharie at No. 15 Albany Academy
Game 5: No. 19 Whitehall at No. 14 Canajoharie
First Round
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m.
Game 6: Game 1 winner at No. 1 Hoosic Valley
Game 7: No. 9 Lake George at No. 8 Fort Plain
Game 8: Game 2 winner at No. 4 Hoosick Falls
Game 9: Game 3 winner at No. 5 Duanesburg
Game 10: Game 4 winner at No. 2 Maple Hill
Game 11: No. 10 Mechanicville at No. 7 Mekeel Christian
Game 12: Game 5 winner at 3 Berne-Knox-Westerlo
Game 13: No. 11 Greenwich at No. 6 Waterford
Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb. 22
at highest seed
Game 14: Game 9 winner vs. Game 6 winner, TBA
Game 15: Game 10 winner vs. Game 7 winner, TBA
at highest seed
Game 16: Game 8 winner vs. Game 13 winner, TBA
Game 17: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, TBA
Semifinals
Wednesday, Feb. 27
at Cohoes H.S.
Game 18: Game 14 winner vs. Game 15 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 19: Game 16 winner vs. Game 17 winner, 6 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, March 2, noon
at Hudson Valley CC
Game 20: Game 18 winner vs. Game 19 winner
CLASS D
First Round
Tuesday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m.
Game 1: No. 9 Germantown at No. 8 North Warren
Game 2: No. 10 New Lebanon at No. 7 Hartford
Game 3: No. 11 Bolton at No. 6 Heatly
Quarterfinals
Friday, Feb. 22
at Fort Edward H.S.
Game 4: Game 1 winner at No. 1 Fort Edward, 7:30 p.m.
Game 5: No. 5 Northville vs. No. 4 Warrensburg, 6 p.m.
at Fort Ann H.S.
Game 6: Game 2 winner at No. 2 Fort Ann, 7:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs No. 3 Argyle 6 p.m.
Semifinals
Tuesday, Feb. 26
at SUNY Adirondack
Game 9: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 10: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 6 p.m.
Championship
Satursday, March 2, 5:15 p.m.
at Hudson Valley CC
Game 11: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner
