Sophomore Danielle Leguillou has been a revelation this post season for Curtis. (Denis Gostev)
ALBANY — The points didn’t mean a thing to Breanna Stewart. The Cicero-North Syracuse star has scored plenty in her career. It was only the win that counted.
Stewart, the 6-foot-4 Miss New York State Basketball winner, was unaware of her record-breaking performance in a surprisingly easy, 80-55 victory over defending champion Nazareth in the New York State Federation Class AA girls basketball semifinals Saturday at the Times Union Center.
“Points don’t matter,” Stewart said. … “As long as it’s coming from someone from the team that’s all that matters.”
The UConn-bound wing scored 42 points, a ‘AA’ tournament record, on 15-of-20 shooting and grabbed 23 rebounds, tying the Fed record by Murry Bergtraum’s Shaniqua Reese against her last year. She also added six blocks.
Bergtraum star Epiphanny Prince scored 38 points back in 2004 and Colonie’s Michelle Blot holds the all-time record of 43 in 2001 when the ‘A’ was the highest classification.
Stewart’s performance gives her a chance to play for a Federation title for the first time in the McDonald’s All-American’s five-year high school career. Cicero-North Syracuse, ranked No. 5 in the country by USA Today, faces 14-time PSAL champion Bergtraum 12 p.m. Sunday in the final. She needs just 11 points to break the ‘AA’ record in the tournament and 21 for the overall mark.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Stewart, the 2011 USA Basketball Player of the Year. “This is where we wanted to be last year. This is the farthest game you can go and play and we would like to end on a win.”
She got plenty of help from her hot-shooting teammates, who connected on nine 3-pointers. Brittany Paul scored 20 points, including five treys, that stretched the Lady Kingsmen’s trapping defense. Cicero-North Syracuse (22-3), which expected a much close game, led 37-27 at the half and 62-42 after three quarters. Nazareth (18-4) is ranked No. 16 nationally.
“We had a shootaround this morning,” Paul said. “I think that helped us.”
The senior guard said the only thing that still amazes her about Stewart is her approximately 7-foot-1 wingspan. Northstars coach Eric Smith there isn’t much for him either, but her three-quarter court heave to beat the first-quarter buzzer was certainly up there. Stewart said she was just trying to get the ball over the rim.
“She’s never done that in her five-year career,” he said. “I’m standing there, ‘That’s right in line with the basket.’ Then it went in and the kids went crazy like it was the end of the game.”
When the buzzer sounds against Bergtraum on Sunday, Cicero-North Syracuse’s season and Stewart’s high school career come to a close. Smith feels his team, since wins at the Nike Tournament of Champions in December, has believed it can beat anyone in the country.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Stewart said. “And definitely extra motivation.”
Warriors, Leguillou see bright future after loss: Curtis’ loss is just the beginning of things to come.
The Warriors, just one of two Staten Island programs to ever play for the PSAL Class AA title, had never been upstate before this season, a run that ended with a 75-69 loss to Bishop Loughlin in the stFederation Class A girls basketball title game Saturday at the Times Union Center. All but one starter returns next year as Curtis looks to win PSAL Staten Island A and earn a spot in the ‘AA’ playoffs.
“We have a real good foundation,” coach Bob Daggett said. “We had a real good JV so we will add some pieces next year and maybe a little more size. It’s nice to know we got a real good nucleus coming back. ”
Added sophomore guard Danielle Leguillou said: “We are still all babies.”
In Daggett’s first season at the school, his team, which included six players from his former school St. Peter’s, jelled together and nearly won the school’s first Federation crown. A 19-point second quarter Loughlin lead was down to 71-69 after a ridiculous three-point play by Jessica Rosalbo with 18.6 seconds remaining. Curtis turned the ball over 27 times, including 18 in the first half, but Kristen Olsen connected on four 3-pointers and helped shoot Curtis (21-9) back in.
“It’s tough when you rely so much on 3-point shooting,” Daggett said.
While Olsen is the shooter and Rosalbo is the heart and soul, Leguillou was Curtis’ breakout player. She had 15 points and seven rebounds against Loughlin. In the PSAL ‘A’ title win over Goldstein, the 5-foot-4 Leguillou, who has to play forward, dropped in 15 points and helped hold Chestnut Hill-bound Brittany McDonough to just two points.
“Everyone judges me because I’m just a sophomore and I’m little and they don’t know if I can do it,” Leguillou said. “That just pushes me more to achieve what I’ve done.”
Reserve sparks Irvington: If Irvington guard Lauren Chafizadeh felt nervous coming off of the bench in a big game with her team trailing, it didn’t transfer onto the court.
The sophomore showed great poise coming into the game on Saturday with her team trailing in the third quarter of the NYS Federation Class B championship game and sparked the offense by scoring 12 points and initiating an 18-0 run that eventually gave Irvington its second Federation title in three years with a 74-64 victory over Long Island Lutheran.
“I was nervous at first going into the game,” Chafizadeh said. “Then I got the ball and shot and it felt great. We all worked together so well to get the points up.”
It was a career day for Chafizadeh who was playing with a bruised knee suffered in Friday’s semifinal victory over Cardinal O’Hara (Buffalo). Chafizadeh was the fourth highest scorer for Irvington on Saturday despite not playing for more than half of the game.
Chafizadeh came in with her team down by eight and hit an immediate 3 to pull the Bulldogs within five. Though Chafizadeh has started a few games in the past when starting guard Ryan McMahon was out with a concussion, this was by far the biggest impact she’s made rotating in as the sixth man.
“She’s helped our team incredibly this year,” Irvington coach Gina Maher said. “It was great to see her be able to do what she did today. She was cool as a cucumber for a sophomore. It was amazing.”
Maher is familiar with Chafizadeh’s family, having coached her mother Kelly at Irvington. Chafidazeh came in the game and her teammates took notice of the impact she had immediately.
“Lauren just sparked us in the third quarter,” said junior guard Brittni Lai, who led the team with 18 points. “She had a great day for us today. She was just unbelievable and I really think she sparked us at the end.”
While Chafizadeh is happy with her performance, she’s mostly just happy to add another Federation title for her team and to get revenge on the team she lost to last year.
“We all worked so hard for this and prepared everyday for this game,” Chafizadeh said. “To come back and beat them since we lost last year, it just felt good to complete it.”
All-Tournament teams: Class B All-Tournament team featured Aisha Shabazz (Cardinal O’Hara), Jessica Glaz (Scholars Academy), Christina Raiti (LuHi), Alexis Martins (Irvington), Brittany Lai (Irvington) and MVP Marley Giddins (Irvington). The ‘A’ was Loughlin’s Imani Tate, Jasmine Alston and Nyree Alston, Danielle Leguillou of Curtis and Rochester East’s Rose Ayala.