Troy, N.Y. (WRGB) \u2014 March lived up to its \u201cmadness\u201d nickname again as three Section II girls basketball teams punched their tickets to next weekend\u2019s state final fours, completing a Friday night sweep in state quarterfinal play.<\/p>\n
In the Class A regional final, Albany Academy faced Section VII\u2019s Peru in a rematch of last year\u2019s matchup, which the Bears won by 31. This time was more of the same, with Albany Academy in control from start to finish.<\/p>\n
Alex Leonard scored on a fadeaway, and Amia Rodriguez finished through contact on a drive as the Bears built a commanding lead. Albany Academy continued to push the pace in the third quarter, extending its advantage past 25. Senior Morgan Vien added a baby hook and later found a cutting Leonard as the Bears kept rolling.<\/p>\n
Albany Academy won 60-32. The victory marked the senior class\u2019 fourth sectional title and the program\u2019s third straight trip to the state final four.<\/p>\n
In Class AA, Bethlehem kept its postseason run going against Oswego from Section III. The Eagles came out firing, with Brynn Elfeldt hitting from deep. Bethlehem also turned defense into offense, with Liz Kearney coming up with a steal and feeding Lily Griesbach for an easy layup. Kearney later attacked early in transition, swinging the ball to a sophomore in the corner for another deep make.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem opened the game on a 20-0 run and never looked back, winning 64-41. The Eagles finished the regular season 7-11, but with five straight wins since then, they advanced to the state semifinals.<\/p>\n
In the Class AAA quarterfinal nightcap, Shaker ran past Baldwinsville, 61-35, to complete the Section II sweep. The win marked Shaker\u2019s first trip to the state final four in program history. Last year, Shaker\u2019s boys team captured its first-ever state championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Troy, N.Y. (WRGB) \u2014 March lived up to its \u201cmadness\u201d nickname again as three Section II girls basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-138007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}