Granville girls win a pair on hardcourt

Melissa Beaver doesn’t usually lead the Granville girls basketball team in scoring, but opponents shouldn’t let that fool them. The Golden Horde junior point guard does so many things that impact her team winning.

Friday night Beaver managed only four points but she caused a ton of havoc for the Hartford guards as Granville held on to defeat the Tanagers, 38-33, in an Adirondack League crossover game.

The game was the rubber match between the Golden Horde and Tanagers who had split two earlier meetings this season.

Granville coach Dan Brown had high praise for Beaver.

“If it wasn’t for Melissa Beaver we probably wouldn’t have won that game,” Brown said. “She’s the best pure point guard in this league. I don’t need her to score. I’ve seen them all, and no offense against some great players. She’s the best pure point guard in this league.”

Late in the game when Hartford was making a run at the Golden Horde, who had gone ice cold from the field, Beaver helped lock down the Tanagers.

“You saw those steals she made at the end of the game. She averages six and a half to seven assists a game. She’s a ball control freak. She made a couple of mental mistakes, but other than that she’s the reason we hung on with her passing ability and seeing the floor.”

Granville led 11-9 after a quarter but opened the second on a 9-0 run to lead 20-9. Freshman Paige Taylor scored seven points off the bench during the spurt to give the Golden Horde a spark. Granville led 26-15 at the half.

It looked as though Brown’s team may blow the game open to start the third, but Hartford refused to go away. Granville extended its lead to 30-15 to begin the stanza, but then the Tanagers began to rally.

Hartford changed to a full court pressure defense that stifled the Golden Horde and the Tanagers pulled within 33-26 at the end of the third.

A 3-pointer by Cailin Severance for the first points of the fourth sliced Hartford’s deficit to 33-29. The Tanagers didn’t get any closer. Jordan Chadwick sank three foul shots and Beaver added a steal and a layup to give Granville the cushion they needed to close out the game.

“The girls held on. They battled. We had some silly turnovers because of the pressure,” Brown said. “Some of them have never been in that position. They kind of got out of sync, but we held on. Kudos to them for their full court man-to-man pressure.”

Chadwick, Taylor and Lauren Bascom scored seven points each for Granville. Lilly Strout chipped in six.

Alawnah Dunda had a game-high 14 points for the Tanagers. Severance added six and Cassandra Wade five.

Granville closes the regular season 8-11. Hartford drops to 6-13.

On Tuesday night Granville made the short trip to Fort Ann and cruised past the Cardinals 50-15 in an Adirondack League crossover game.

The Golden Horde led 9-3 after a quarter and 25-11 at the half.

Granville held the Cardinals to just four second-half points.

Strout and Ella Olsen both had double-doubles for Granville. Strout finished with 13 points and 18 rebounds. Olsen netted 12 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.

Bascom added 11 points for the Golden Horde. Taylor chipped in eight points.

Angel Aratare had eight points to pace Fort Ann.

Granville was 7-11 after the win. Fort Ann fell to 2-18.

Whitehall’s Austin tops Horde’s Perry

Two seniors. Two best friends. Both with their sights squarely on a shot at a state wrestling title in their final high school campaign.

Whitehall’s Troy Austin avenged a 1-0 loss to Granville’s Brent Perry a year ago, edging his close compadre 5-2 to claim the 189-pound Division II state qualifier title Saturday at Cool Insuring Arena.

In a rematch of last year’s final, Austin used a reversal late in the match to secure the victory and a trip to states in consecutive years.

Austin pinned Ryan Ulscht of Coxsackie-Athens in the semifinals in 47 seconds.

Perry pinned Michael Cavanaugh of Schalmont in 3:08 to reach the championship match.

Two other Whitehall wrestlers, Sawyer Ostrander and Chad Monty, advanced to the semifinals.

Ostrander dropped a 15-11 decision to Kyber Henry of Cobleskill in his semifinal match. In the consolation finals Ostrander earned a third-place finish, needing only 38 seconds to dispose of Jacob Schweigard of Duanesburg-Schoharie.

In the 172-pound semifinals Daniel Forbes of Catskill won a 12-6 decision over Monty. Monty finished fourth after being pinned by Jonathan Cranker of Fonda-Johnstown in 3:32.

Granville’s Quinn Johnson placed fourth after falling to Alex Smith of Canajoharie-Fort Plain by a 10-3 decision in the 126-pound consolation final.

Other local wrestlers to win championships in Division II were Dante Corriveau of Warrensburg-Lake George at 152 pounds, Jesse Mullis of Hudson Falls at 172 pounds, Evan Day of Salem-Cambridge at 215 and Tristen Hitchcock of Warrensburg-Lake George at 285.

Luke LeBlanc (102) and Angie Dill (110) of Salem-Cambridge, along with Colin Diffee of Hudson Falls placed second.

Along with Ostrander, other area third-place finishers were Corinth/Hadley-Luzerne’s Aiden Schurr (102), Warrensburg-Lake George’s Cameron Carpenter (110) and Zach Olden (132), and Schuylerville-Greenwich’s Aidan Jones (160).

See also “Horde boys fall, 77-56, in title game”