Good Morning! With the Border Country Sports Report, I’m Keith Harrington.
Tanagers Fall to Corinth in ADK Title Game
In a rematch of the 2022 title game, Corinth claimed the Adirondack League girl’s basketball championship with a 61-43 victory over Hartford Saturday night at Hudson Falls High School. The Riverhawks wore the crown two years ago and fell to Whitehall in the final last season.
Both teams started slowly, struggling to put the ball in the basket. The Riverhawks took advantage of their foul shots, scoring seven points from the stripe to fashion a 14-7 after the first quarter.
The second quarter proved to be the difference in the game. After Hartford’s Alawnah Dunda scored the first basket of the frame, Corinth ripped off an 8-0 run to lead 22-9. The advantage ballooned to 34-16 at halftime.
The Tanagers had a glimmer of hope to start the third, but it was quickly extinguished. Cailin Severance opened the half with a 3-pointer to slice the deficit to 34-19, but Corinth responded. The Riverhawks put together a 7-0 spurt capped by a Whitney Cameron trey that felt like the dagger, extending the margin to 41-19.
Hartford used a steady diet of pounding the ball into the paint to Dunda over the final 16 minutes to attempt to close the gap. Despite Dunda pouring in 13 second-half points and outscoring Corinth 10-7 in the fourth quarter, the damage had already been inflicted.
Cameron led a balanced Riverhawk attack with 16 points, Caitlyn Crossman contributed 13 for Corinth. Emily Dingmon and Taylor Stone netted 12 points each.
Dunda paced Hartford with 17 points. McKenzie Johnson added 10.
Corinth improved to 17-1. Hartford is 13-6. Both teams will enter sectional play with high hopes in their respective classes.
North Warren Claims Back-to-Back ADK Crowns
North Warren opened a double-digit lead at halftime and held off Warrensburg 60-46 in a foul-plagued contest to claim back-to-back Adirondack League boys basketball championships. The Cougars defeated Granville in last year’s title game.
North Warren is typically led by Semaj Cuyler and Derrick Tyrell, but in this contest, it was the supporting cast who came up big. Both Elijah Horge and Wyatt Jennings were on fire from behind the arc in the first half to spark North Warren.
The Burghers got out to an early 4-0 lead, but it was shortlived. Horge knocked down consecutive treys and the Cougars led 16-9 after a quarter.
North Warren continued to pull away in the second, outscoring Warrensburg 13-7 to lead 29-16 at the break.
Fouls were the story in the second half. With the Cougars still leading by 13, Cuyler was charged with his fourth and was forced to sit for an extended period.
The Burghers were able to pull within eight with Cuyler on the bench, but couldn’t get any closer. Warrensburg had foul issues of their own with one of their seven players fouling out and two others playing with four fouls at the end.
North Warren hit the key foul shots down the stretch to hold on for the win and the championship.
Horge led the Cougars with 22 points. Tyrell added 18 and Jennings 12.
Steve Schloss poured in a game-high 25 points for the Burghers.
North Warren raised their mark to 16-3. Warrensburg fell to 14-6.
Locals Place State Qualifier Meet
A handful of wrestlers won titles and several others placed at the Section II state qualifier meet held at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Saturday.
Two Hudson Falls wrestlers and one from Salem-Cambridge won titles.
At 131 pounds Justin Mullis of Hudson Falls won a 7-2 decision over Scott Nicoella of Duanesburg-Schoharie to claim the crown.
His brother Jesse Mullis pinned Whitehall’s CJ Monty in 2:19 to win the title at 190. Monty also qualified for the state meet via his second-place finish.
At 108 Luke LeBlanc of Salem-Cambridge edged Cameron Carpenter 4-3 in the final.
Granville’s Jaxon Torres also punched his ticket to Albany with a runner-up finish. Torres reached the 152 final before dropping a 4-0 decision to Jacob Schweigard of Duanesburg-Schoharie.
Brayton Cary of Salem-Cambridge won by decision over Ayden Smith of Whitehall 7-0 in the 160 consolation final.
AJ Landon of Granville placed third at 190 with a pin of Connor Wade of Cobleskill in 2:26 in the consolation final.
Photo Credit-Lori Severance
