Recorder Sports Staff
SCHUYLERVILLE -- After 36 minutes of hard-fought, back-and-forth action, it all came crashing down for the Fonda-Fultonville Lady Braves in the first 30 seconds of the team's second overtime session with the Schuylerville Lady Horses Tuesday evening.
Tied at 51 points, F-F's Alyssa Craig won the jump ball to start the second overtime, the ball eventually finding its way to Emily Parslow in the corner. But Parslow -- who hit a 3-pointer to send the game into the first overtime -- threw an errant pass through the hands of teammate Sarah Wyzomirski.
What happened next was much worse.
In the battle for the ensuing loose ball, F-F's Emily Frollo banged into the first row of stands; then, Schuylerville gained possession of the ball and pushed it ahead to Katelyn Fane, who was fouled on a lay-up attempt by Craig.
Though Fane only made one of her two free throws and more than three minutes was still left in the game, the flurry of action had taken its toll on the Lady Braves -- Frollo was lost for the game with a knee injury and the foul was Craig's fifth, disqualifying her from playing further.
The loss of Craig and Frollo left the Lady Braves with little firepower and Schuylerville took advantage, as the No. 6 Lady Horses pulled away for a 61-51 first-round victory in the Section II Class B girls basketball tournament against the No. 11 Lady Braves.
"That's hard when two of your better players go out at the same time," said F-F head coach Wendi Waters. "Monica (Derby) and Taylor (Wetsky) had to come in after being on the bench for a while ... but, it wasn't just that; we should have won the game before that."
The Lady Braves (6-13) certainly had their chances -- 79 of them, in fact. In the double-overtime game, that was the number of shots F-F hoisted at the rim, with only 17 of the attempts making their way through the basket. Parslow led the Lady Braves with 14 points and Craig added nine points, but the latter suffered through a shooting night to forget. In her final high school game, the senior co-captain never could get her usually-reliable lefty shot going, as Craig shot just 2-of-23 from the field for the contest.
"I know she's disappointed with the way it ended, but I told her, 'We wouldn't even be here without what you did all season long,'" Waters said.
"There was somebody on [Craig] the whole night and she didn't have any wide-open shots," Waters explained.
Frollo finished with six points, seven rebounds and four steals.
Schuylerville's (7-12) Fane carried her team for most of the night, as the senior guard posted an all-around line of 24 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and eight steals. Only minutes after F-F lost Craig and Frollo, Fane made a clean steal of F-F's Cassandra Egelston and converted the fast-break lay-up with her left hand to push the Lady Horses' lead to an insurmountable seven points with 1:29 left to play.
"[Fane's] got very long arms and is a very good defender," said Schuylerville head coach Jim DeGregory. "She doesn't get as much credit because I try to keep her off the ball so she can help (her teammates), but she's a very good defender."
F-F never scored in the second overtime, as Schuylerville won going away. Also for Schuylerville, Breanna Miller added 22 points.
The Lady Braves trailed for most of the game, only holding slim leads early in the second quarter and in the first overtime.
Waters said the game's result would sting for a while because of the team's missed chances, but that she was proud of the way her team had ended the season. After starting 1-9 in the Colonial Council, the Lady Braves scraped out wins in three of their final six league games and were a much more competitive team as the season went along.
"I feel like we've come a long way since the start of the season," the coach said.
Tuesday night was no different, as the Lady Braves fought back from deficit after deficit, only succumbing after losing a battle with attrition.
"I told them (after the game), 'I don't have anything right now that I can say to make you feel better, but I can't fault [your] effort,'" Waters said.