Bethlehem junior Lily Griesbach takes a jumper in front of Oswego junior Giada Pezzlo during the Class AA quarterfinals on Friday, March 13. 2026, at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. (Jim Franco/Times Union)
Jim Franco/Times Union
Bethlehem head coach Trish Piccini during the Class AA quarterfinals against Oswego on Friday, March 13. 2026, at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. (Jim Franco/Times Union)
Jim Franco/Times Union
Bethlehem senior Makaya McCann drives to the basket during the Class AA quarterfinals against Oswego on Friday, March 13. 2026, at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. (Jim Franco/Times Union)
Jim Franco/Times Union
Bethlehem eighth grader Brynn Elfeldt drives to the basket in front of Oswego junior Maria Sweet during the Class AA quarterfinals on Friday, March 13. 2026, at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. (Jim Franco/Times Union)
Jim Franco/Times Union
TROY — The Bethlehem girls’ basketball team simply refuses to let the clock strike midnight on its Cinderella story.
Now, an Eagles team that entered the Section 2 Class AA playoffs with a record three games under .500 is one win away from an improbable state championship after surviving a grueling second half to beat Nyack 50-46 in the NYSPHSAA semifinals on Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College.
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“If you told people a month ago that we’d be playing for a state championship, people would say, ‘What the heck?’” Eagles junior point guard Lily Griesbach said. “And, now, here we are.”
Bethlehem (13-11 overall) will face Section 6’s North Tonawanda in the championship game on Sunday at 11:45 a.m. at HVCC. North Tonawanda cruised into the final with a 57-35 win over Horseheads in Saturday’s first Class AA semifinal.
The Eagles, on the other hand, had to work until the very last second to extend their season another day.
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A red-hot start on both ends of the floor helped Bethlehem lead by as many as 15 in the first half and take a 31-20 lead to the locker room, but the Eagles had to weather a dogged comeback from Nyack (25-2) and star sophomore Rakiya Mohammed, who scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the second half.
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“They just will not give up, this team,” Bethlehem coach Trish Piccini said. “They do not give up. They play within themselves and they execute the game plan.”
While Bethlehem missed its first six field goal attempts of the third quarter, Mohammed and the Redhawks slowly chipped away at the Eagles’ lead, eventually closing within 33-28. Bethlehem’s first made basket of the second half, a 3-pointer by eighth-grader Brynn Elfeldt, helped calm things down for the Eagles.
“We all played together and knew what we needed to do,” said Elfeldt, who led the Eagles with 15 points. “I think we did it.”
Bethlehem shot just 4 of 21 from the field in the second half, but those few shots and a 20-of-25 performance at the free throw line were enough to ward off Nyack’s rally.
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The biggest shot came at the end of the third quarter when Griesbach, who was just 2 of 13 from the field on the game, rebounded an airballed 3-pointer from a teammate, dribbled along the baseline to get beyond the arc and knocked down a corner 3 just before the buzzer to put Bethlehem up 43-32.
“It gave us a push for the fourth quarter to win the game,” Griesbach said. “For me, obviously, it got my shooting confidence up.”
“She is, I think, one of the most underrated players,” Piccini said of Griesbach. “She controls the game.”
Bethlehem made just one field goal in the fourth quarter, a short shot by Ella McCarthy with 4:51 to play, but it was enough. Griesbach and Elizabeth Kearney hit five free throws in the game’s final 61 seconds, and when Mohammed split a pair of free throws with 7.1 seconds left to keep it a two-possession game, the Eagles were finally able to get over the finish line to the delight of a decidedly pro-Bethlehem crowd at HVCC.
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“It’s so crazy,” Elfeldt said. “Everyone works so hard and it’s paid off. We made it this far.”
It was a balanced effort for Bethlehem, as along with Elfeldt’s 15 points, McCarthy and Kearney each scored nine, Griesbach scored eight and Makaya McCann scored seven.
Now, just one more win stands between Bethlehem and an achievement that seemed improbable — if not impossible — only a month ago.
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“Really, it’s surreal. That’s the word for it,” Piccini said. “We just take it one day at a time and just keep thinking that the confidence we get with each game helps us with the next game. It’s a pretty awesome group.”