RAVENA – Having posted back-to-back wins over Watervliet and Cairo-Durham, the Fonda-Fultonville girls basketball team looked to keep its momentum going in the first round of the Section II Class B Tournament on Tuesday at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk.
Instead the season came to a disappointing end for the 14th-seeded Lady Braves with a 56-40 loss to the third-seeded Lady Indians.
“I’m utterly disappointed,” Fonda-Fultonville coach Wendi Waters said. “I had in my mind that we were capable of coming down here and pulling the upset. I really thought we had the momentum, heart and energy to do it.”
The ending was similar to last season as Emily Frollo, one of the team’s top scorers, was forced to sit out the second half after injuring her right knee late in the first half. Frollo injured her left knee in last year’s season-ending, double-overtime loss to Schuylerville.
“Without Emily in the second half, it was going to be tough to pull a win off,” Waters said.
Kayla Hotaling scored 13 points to lead a balanced attack for Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, while Jasmine Powell (12 points) and Shelby Preston (11) also finished in double digits for the Lady Indians.
Sophomore Emily Parslow scored a game-high 20 points to lead FFCS.
Fonda-Fultonville ended last week with a win over state-ranked Watervliet (55-54) and a Class B play-in win over 19th-seeded Cairo-Durham (61-26), giving its plenty of confidence as it looked to avenge its 66-52 regular-season loss at Ravena on Jan. 8.
The Lady Braves scored the first six points of the game to take a 6-0 lead with 6:18 remaining in the first quarter. Frollo sank all three free throws after getting fouled on a 3-point attempt, while Parslow connected on a 3-pointer, forcing Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk coach Bruce Stott to call a timeout to settle his team, which went without a field goal for the first 3:20 of the game.
“We really wanted to pound the ball inside,” coach Stott said. “Everybody knows though to get the ball inside, you have to have an outside game, and we struggled with that tonight.”
The move worked as the Lady Indians outscored the Lady Braves 11-4 over the remainder of the quarter to take an 11-10 lead after one.
Powell scored eight of Ravena’s 11 points in the opening quarter.
The teams traded baskets early in the second quarter before the Lady Indians used offensive rebounds and putbacks to end three straight possessions to take a 21-14 lead, forcing a timeout by Waters.
“Those rebounds and putbacks really took the wind out of our sails,” Waters said. “They had chance after chance.”
Moments after the timeout Hope Rebeor buried a 3-pointer to extend the Ravena advantage to 10 points with 3:47 left in the first half.
Fonda-Fultonville battled back to get within four points on a 3-pointer by Cassandra Egelston and three straight points by Parslow to make it 24-20 with 2:10 left in the half.
The Lady Indians pushed the lead back to eight points at the break with back-to-back baskets by Rebeor and Hotaling to make it 28-20 at the half.
In the third quarter, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk put the game out of reach by outscoring FFCS 21-8.
“Ravena’s kids play hard,” Waters said. “They played tough defense.”
Hotaling scored eight of her team-high 13 points in the quarter for the Lady Indians, who took a 49-29 lead into the fourth quarter.
“The biggest thing for us is playing four consistent quarters. We’ve been doing that in our last few games, but we couldn’t put it together tonight,” Waters said.
In the final quarter, the Lady Braves got no closer than 15 points despite holding the Lady Indians to just seven points as Ravena drained the shot clock on nearly every possession.
Parslow scored seven points in the final frame for the Lady Braves.
“Wendi [Waters] does a great job with her team,” Stott said. “They play hard and [Emily] Parslow is really a handful. They never stopped playing and we knew that would be the case.”
Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk (13-6 overall) will face either No. 11 seed Hudson or No. 6 Hudson Falls in Saturday’s quarterfinals at a site and time to be determined.
Hudson Falls will host Hudson today at 6 p.m.
Fonda-Fultonville finished its season with a 9-11 overall record.
“I’m proud of the way we finished the season,” Waters said. “It’s just hard to have it end. It’s going to hurt for a while.”
Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk 56, Fonda-Fultonville 40
Fonda-Fultonville10 10 8 11 – 40
Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk11 17 21 7 – 56
Fonda-Fultonville
Parslow 7-4-20, Frollo 0-3-3, Egelston 2-0-5, Subik 0-1-1, Derby 1-0-2, Warner 1-1-3, Wetsky 3-0-6. Totals 14-9-40.
Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk
Powell 4-2-12, Stott 1-1-3, Vosburgh 1-0-2, Rebeor 4-0-9, Preston 5-0-11, Hotaling 5-0-13, Kross 3-0-6. Totals 23-6-56.
3-point goals: Fonda-Fultonville 3 (Parslow 2, Egelston); Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk 4 (Powell 2, Rebeor, Preston).
