It looked a little familiar for Valley Central’s girls’ basketball team. Pine Bush had beaten them in early December during the opening round of the Corinne Feller Memorial Tournament, and the Lady Vikings trailed them again, 14-9, after the first quarter on the road Monday, Jan. 25.

VC's Chelsea Crawford landed this basket at the end of the second quarter. She finished the night with four points.

Valley Central took the lead back to move in front at the half. But then Megan Maisonet did it all for Pine Bush in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 of her 20 points to seal the 57-49 victory for Pine Bush.

“Toward the end, we were able to defend it just a little bit better,” said Pine Bush Coach Bill Lacovara,. “They had to foul us because we were up.”

Valley Central led at the half  28-22, but Christie Nicolo hit a three early and landed another long shot at the buzzer from mid-court to give Pine Bush a 43-25 lead after the third quarter.
Valley Central’s Leanna Feerick dropped a three, one of  four for her on the evening, to extend the Lady Vikings’ lead 33-28 with 4:30 left in the third before Nicolo and Maisonet took control of  the inside and out for Pine Bush.

Nicolo would score 12 of her 16 points in the third before Maisonet owned the inside in the fourth with her 10 points, going 5/8 from the line while hitting a three and a field goal.

“We kind of slowed it down, got some good shots and got fouled,” said Lacovara. “It’s a nice win for us.”

Feerick led Valley Central with 13 points, but Tori DeGroodt scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter, including going 6/9 from the line. But there was some confusion on one of her fouls.

“They said the foul was on the floor, and I thought she was in the act of shooting, and so did everybody else on the team,” said Tim Faulkner, Valley Central’s coach.

So instead of shooting two, as she thought, DeGroodt missed the first shot.  She had one, and Pine Bush grabbed the ball and moved it down court during their fourth quarter run.

“All our girls were sitting still. How that wasn’t a shooting foul was beyond me,” said Faulkner. ‘The girls played great. We were down, and we fought our way back. I just didn’t like the way it ended. They play tough every night, and that’s all we can ask.”

By Bond Brungard
sports@tcnewspapers.com