Rangers drop final

Rangers drop final

With just two seniors, Spencerport advanced to the Class AA girl's basketball final before dropping a 50-46 decision to Greece Athena at the Blue Cross Arena.

"I told the team after the game that I'm proud of them," said Class AA Coach of the Year Mike DeCillis, who announced his retirement following the contest. "This game wasn't expected to be close, we weren't expected to be in the semifinals or the finals and we weren't expected to have a winning season, so I can't be upset with them."

"We made some mistakes at the end, but that's high school. I feel grateful that I had an opportunity to coach this kind of a group because they responded to everything I asked all season. I told them that this is just a small part of life and there will be bumps in the road, but not to leave there feeling sorry for themselves."

The Rangers trailed throughout the first half before tying the game 29-29 with 4:10 left in the third quarter on a basket by Kacey Pratt and 33-33 on Angela Bopp's baseline jumper with 1:50 left in the third quarter.

Pratt put-back her own rebound to again tie the game and scored again to give the Rangers their first lead in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. Andrea Kazmierski hit a free throw with 4:29 left to give the Rangers a one-point lead and a left-handed lay-up one minute later for the last Rangers lead of the game.

Bopp knocked down a three-pointer with two minutes remaining to tie the game at 46-46, but the Trojans scored the final four points. After a traveling call with 30 seconds remaining, the Trojans had fouls to give, which whittled down the clock until creating a turnover in the final seconds to seal the victory.

Senior Lisa Hryvniak led the Rangers in scoring with 13 points and Bopp had 11 with eight rebounds. Pratt was held to a season-low nine points, but contributed a game-high 14 rebounds with four blocks and six assists. Kazmierski also added nine points with three steals.

Pratt and Hryvniak became just the fifth and sixth Spencerport players in the 34 years of the girl's tournament to be named to the All-Star Team. They join Kelly Ryan (1989), LeNedra Brown (1997 & 1998), Lisa Eberhart (2003) and Carrie Kazmierski (2003).