Saints win on late Vail 3-pointer

Trailing by a point with less than two minutes remaining, senior guard Ashley Vail knocked down a three-point shot to lead Churchville-Chili to a tight 42-39 victory over Hilton in girl's basketball.

The fourth quarter featured four lead changes, including Alyshia Thomas giving the Saints a one-point lead by making a free throw on her birthday. Hilton's Lindsay Carr and Christina Ward each scored to give the Cadets a three-point lead before C-C's Morgan Skiff hit a turnaround jumper with 1:43 left in regulation to close the gap to one point. Skiff then picked off an errant pass in the defensive zone and found Vail for what proved to be the game-winner.

Churchville-Chili was playing their first game without Chatanie Williams, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on December 16; three years to the day when the school's all-time leading scorer Joanna Patalano went down with the same injury. Williams had been entertaining over 20 Division I offers.

The Saints' Brittany Williams led all scorers with 16 points - several coming on first half breakaway lay-ups. Skiff had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds to go with six assists and five steals for the 4-1 Saints.

Hilton had nine different players score led by Carr with seven. Erin Marble and Rachel Clonick each added five points as the Cadets fell to 0-4.

January 1, 2006