All kinds of currents of history and emotion collided Saturday afternoon when the Westhill girls basketball team defeated Binghamton Seton Catholic 72-62 in the Class B regional final at SUNY-Cortland.
To start with, the win over the Section IV champion Saints it got the Warriors to next weekend’s state final four at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, the program’s first in 20 years, but it went beyond that accomplishment.
Westhill head coach Sue Ludwig earned her 493rd career victory, passing Corcoran’s Jim Marsh as Section III’s all-time wins leader. She said it’s a feat that’s difficult to process.
“One day I might look back at this as a huge accomplishment,” said Ludwig. “But today it’s about the kids. This is the hardest-working team I’ve ever had.”
Senior Delaney Martin, who with her younger sister Mackenzie combined to score 44 points on the day, said the team’s primary motivation was avenging last year’s regional final defeat to eventual state champion Susquehanna Valley.
“Our theme all season was ‘unfinished business,’” said Martin. “We took care of that.”
It didn’t prove easy, though. Seton Catholic combined strong inside play with hot shooting to push Westhill until the game’s final minutes.
All through the first quarter, the Saints’ pair of forwards, Julia Hauer and Metban Ajak, found their way inside for baskets, especially during an 11-2 run that gave Seton Catholic a 15-10 lead.
But with superb passing and ball movement, the Warriors kept getting open lanes and easy lay-ups, regaining the lead late in the first quarter and keeping it for the rest of the half, despite a torrid pace.
Senior point guard Mary Kate Washburn, normally a distributor, set the tone with 13 points in the first half. Then Mackenzie Martin caught fire, the freshman forward dropping a pair of 3-pointers during a 10-point second-quarter outburst.
Westhill, all told, hit 18 of its 25 shots from the field in the first half, yet only led 39-35 at the break, its normally strong defense having all kinds of trouble with Seton Catholic’s aggressive attack.
During the third quarter, the Warriors stretched its lead out to 12, at 49-37, but the Saints, sparked by a run of baskets from Lexi Levy, ate away at that deficit, pulling within four, 63-59, with four minutes left.
So that left it up to the Martin sisters to put things away. Of Westhill’s 18 points in the fourth quarter, 15 of them were earned by Delaney and Mackenzie, with the younger Martin netting eight points in the final four minutes.
All told, Mackenzie Martin had 24 points and Delaney Martin 20 points. Washburn finished with 17 points as Katelyn Karleski added nine points and Morgan Elmer remained a defensive anchor, especially as the Warriors grew more stingy in the second half.
And now it’s on to the state final four, where Westhill looks to add a third state championship to the ones it earned in 1989 and 1996.
On Friday at 11:45 a.m., the Warriors face Mattituck (Section XI) or Marlboro in the state semifinals. The winner advances to the title game the following afternoon at 4 p.m.
