ALBANY – Looking at Cicero-North Syracuse’s section of the box score, Ed Grezinsky was pleased. UConn-bound superstar Breanna Stewart didn’t have a great shooting percentage. Neither did C-NS as a team. The Northstars made just two 3-pointers – both in the first half – compared to nine against Nazareth in the semifinals.
At the end of the game, though, his Bergtraum team was on the wrong side of a 60-28 loss to Cicero-North Syracuse in the New York State Federation Class AA girls basketball championship game Sunday at the Times Union Center. C-NS (23-3) is the first non-New York City team to win the title since Colonie beat Bergtraum in 2001.
“I thought defensively we did a pretty good job,” Grezinsky said. “They scored 60 points. If you would have told me that before the game, I would have taken that.”
It wasn’t that side of the court that gave Bergtraum (18-8) trouble. On offense, the Lady Blazers couldn’t get anything going, shooting a paltry 13 percent from the field. They had just four field goals in each half and shot 2-of-18 from 3-point range. Grezinsky called it the team’s worst offensive performance of the season by far.
“Our performance was not good,” UNC Charlotte-bound guard Shequana Harris said. “We could have done a lot better.”
She led the way, as she has all year, with 15 points and seven rebounds. Harris forced shots early, but it was because she was the only one scoring. The senior played hard until the very end and she was visibly upset afterward.
“She meant everything to us this year,” Grezinsky said. “We couldn’t have gotten where we got without her.”
Bergtraum’s next leading scorer was senior Dionne Coe, who had six points. The Lady Blazers were outrebounded, 56-42.
But on defense, there was plenty to be pleased about. Grezinsky put together a makeshift triange-and-two against Stewart and 3-point gunner Brittany Paul. Stewart did have 22 points, setting the all-time tournament record (63) in two games, but 10 of those came from the free throw line. The Gatorade National Player of the Year had 43 points against Nazareth.
Paul had 13 points and had her team’s only two 3s, but only took five shots. Bergtraum sagged off everyone but her and Stewart on the perimeter. Grezinsky was audibly telling his players to not close out on any other shooters. The idea worked for the most part, but the Lady Blazers couldn’t score and Sarah Bowles made two huge jumpers to close the first half to extend CNS’s lead to 35-16.
“There really isnt a good strategy, but that’s the best one,” Bowles said of trying to contain Stewart and her team. “She’s going to get her points no matter what.”
Bowles finished with 14 points. Stewart also had 15 rebounds, combining with Saturday’s 23 to set the ‘AA’ Federation mark.
Grezinsky was disappointed in his team’s offensive output, but not at all with the season. Bergtraum dealt with the death of Tayshana (Chicken) Murphy, who was murdered Sept. 11, two months before she would have been one of the Lady Blazers’ senior stars. They still won a 14th straight PSAL city championship when many didn’t give them a shot to do so as recently as February.
“We were underdogs the whole year from the beginning,” Grezinsky said. “The girls played very hard. We held our ground and we pulled it out.”
Falling one game short of the Federation title didn’t make the season a failure by any means.