Girls Hoops Notebook
Putnam Valley, Ossining, Somers Advance to Final 4’s
Haldane Snags 5th Straight Section 1 Class C Crown
Second-year PUTNAM VALLEY Coach Kristi Dini has yearned for quite some time to get back to the Westchester County Center; having played there as a PV high school senior in 2005 but never having made it there as a successful coach with more than 100 wins in just seven seasons. But, as she has discovered, getting to the County Center Final 4 is no easy task, unless you have an emerging Kelli Venezia at your disposal.
The dead-eye sniper matched her career high, dropping 27 points in the third-seeded Tigers’ 58-19 trouncing over visiting sixth-seeded Edgemont in the Section 1 Class C quarterfinals last Wednesday. The Tigers (20-1) have now beaten their two playoff foes by a combined 75-31.
Venezia, a sophomore guard, nailed seven 3-pointers, leading the Tigers to a County Center play-date with No.2 Briarcliff (20-1) in the sectional semis (6:30 p.m. last night); the same Bears team the Tigers stunned in the 2016 quarterfinals when Venezia, then an 8th-grader, came off the bench to score 16 points to lead PV to its first Final 4 since Dini’s days as an All-NYS marksman.
“Kristi has been my mentor growing up, so this means a lot to me,” Venezia said. “She taught me everything I know and to get her back to County Center as a coach means so much to me. Everybody calls me ‘a younger Kristi’ and I want to live up to that and eventually beat her records here at PV. She’s always there to prepare us. She knows what she’s doing. We’ll scout, watch film and go through everything we have to in order to be prepared for Briarcliff. Our defense is always good, but we need to make it better against them. It’s the little things and who wants it more.”
Fast forward to 2018: Venezia scored 21 points in the first half and took just three shots in the second half, after arriving at school late Wednesday morning with a stomach bug. State-ranked (No.19) Putnam Valley unleashed a 19-0 run to open and, like it has for much of its 17-game win streak, cruised to victory. Freshman G Arianna Stockinger added 10 points for PV while junior F Dora Rippon added eight points for the Tigers, who have set the school record for wins in a season.
“It’s going to take a full three days with Kristi to get us prepared,” Stockinger said. “But I think she’ll have us ready. In the beginning of the year, we had a goal, and felt we could realistically be 18-1 or 17-1, and we’ve done that, so we’ve accomplished that. We’re very happy but not satisfied.”
Satisfaction is generally something athletes strive for, but the best ones are never fully gratified until they exceed expectations. The end goal is a sectional championship (and beyond), and, while she’s thrilled to hit the County Center hardwood again, Dini is far from satisfied.
“They have prepared so hard since the pre-season,” said Dini, the national record-setting bomber at Boston University. “We’ve always had the defensive side of the ball down the last two years, but now we’ve got multiple kids scoring. So, we’re prepared, we’re playing well, we’re confident and disciplined in our defense no matter who we’re playing. We’ve got to go into Monday with that same approach, but we’ve got to score, because Briarcliff is another team that’s very tough. Defensively, they mixed it up on us last year, so these next few practices will tell us whether we’re prepared or not for this. We talked all year about getting to this point, but now we’re here, against Briarcliff, as we expected.
“It’s amazing,” Dini added. “I’ve knows some of these girls since they were babies. I’ve never been at the County Center as a coach, only as a player in Putnam Valley, so this amazing and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group of kids.”
SOMERS, the defending Class A champions, are headed back to the County Center for today’s Class A Final 4 against No.3 Rye after the second-seeded Tuskers pulled away from No.10 Panas in the fourth quarter of a 60-45 triumph. Somers G Hannah Angelini delivered 15 points to lead the Tuskers. Somers G Dani DiCintio and wing Liv Lipski added 14 and 10 points, respectively, for the Tuskers, who advanced to face No. 3 Rye in today’s semifinals (4:45 p.m.).
Somers Coach Marc Hattem suspects his ‘Big 3’ have found their way out of a shooting slump, and knows that Rye and, potentially, No.1 John Jay CR (whom Somers split two games with), are major obstacles on the path to repeating as Class A champs. Experience is in his favor, and the stage will not be too big for the Tuskers (16-6).
HALDANE knows nothing but winning. The five-time Class C champion Blue Devils, the No.1 seed, took out No.2 Keio in a rather effortless manner, 50-30, last Saturday at Pace University.
Haldane senior Allsion Chiera pulled a double-double (21 points and 11 rebounds) and won her third-straight MVP award for Haldane (12-10), which will play the Section 9 champion (either Goshen or Saugerties) in the state regional semifinals on Mar. 6 (venue TBA). Section 1 will host the event at a neutral site in the area. The Blue Devils have found Section 9 foes to be more than formidable in recent seasons, having lost in the opening round in two of the last three years to Pine Plains.
“I am very happy with this group of girls,” Blue Devil boss Tyrone Searight said. “We played a tough schedule this year, and it got us battle-tested for what’s ahead of us. Most of our losses were close ones, and we play very good defense when we are dialed in. The gold ball is great accomplishment, our fifth in a row, and about Haldane’s 200th, Our goal is to be at Troy, and we are heading in the right direction.”
OSSINING made short work of White Plains in a 97-54 trouncing last Friday. The top-seeded Pride saw F Aubrey Griffin drop a game-high 37 points to go with 12 rebounds while C Kailah Harris (6 steals, 5 assists) notched another double-double with 30 points and 14 rebounds. Pride G Kelsey Quain chipped in with 16 points, including four 3’s. The Pride are playing the rest of the season without injured veteran point guard Jaida Strippoli, who is done for the season after undergoing a second meniscus surgery. The trio of Brooke Weeks, freshman Kacie Scarduzio and Adriana McFadden will try to make up for the loss by committee.
The seven-time defending Section 1 Class AA champions face No. 5 R.C. Ketcham in the semifinals Wednesday (6 p.m.) at the County Center. RCK is having its finest season ever, but has yet to be challenged by anyone of Ossining’s ilk. Pride Coach Danny Ricci’s unit is as battle-tested as anyone in the state, and the veteran mentor fully expects to face the winner of Magnus vs. Lourdes in the Saturday’s Class AA finals at Pace University (1:30 p.m.). If the Pride aren’t in the finals, that’ll be a bigger story.
BREWSTER was eliminated in a 60-37 loss at top-seeded John Jay CR.
Ray has 33 years experience covering and photographing local sports in Westchester and Putnam counties, including everything from Little League/Travel Baseball to varsity high school prep sports and collegiate coverage. He has been a sports editor at Examiner Media since its inception in 2007.
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