NEXT….ORISKANY CRUISES PAST PATS TO DATE AT THE DOME
Oriskany’s Christina Graziadei had a great day to lead the Redskins past Sackets Harbor!
Fred Miller-MHTS
Photos-Kevin Montano-MHTS
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The Oriskany Lady Redskins girls basketball team, (20-0) and seeded # 1 in the Class D tournament bracket, took another step toward making it back-to-back Section III Class D Championships with a business like 52-21 win over the Sackets Harbor Patriots, from the Frontier League, on Sunday afternoon at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse.
Speaking of the word community, it was easy to see that just about he entire Oriskany community was on hand for this semifinal matchup.
The problem is that the color maroon was on prominent display as both teams were adorned in the same school colors.
It got easier to separate the Redskins faithful from the Patriot nation once the ball was tossed up to get this one started.
Madison Zizzi had a big day chipping in 17 points!
The loud vocal, Oriskany cheering section had plenty to shout about as their favorite five once again showed Section 3 Class D teams that they were the team to beat.
Coach, Angela Meiss is lucky to be able to trot out a senior laden roster that includes five seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and one freshmen.
One of those key upperclassmen Christina Graziadei played a key roll in helping her team roll past a dazed and confused bunch of Pats.
The silky-smooth post player, Graziadei, poured in 20 points as the Patriots could do little to slow down the 6’1” center.
Graziadei has worked hard to improve her game and has developed a sweet looking jump shot, that she can hit from several shots in the paint with ease, making her even harder to guard.
Christina decided that enough was enough as the Pats acted as though they could hang with the Skins early on.
The message was received loud and clear, by the team from the north country, when Graziadei scored 9 or her 20 points in the second quarter as Oriskany put the pedal to the medal and left Sackets Harbor in the dust.
Along with her 20 point on offense, Graziadei pulled down 9 rebounds.
Graziadei had plenty of help as teammate Jordan Sahl came of the bench to score 12 points, 8 of those, when the lead continued to grow with each passing minute of play.
Sahl, just a sophomore, is really coming on down the stretch to give the Skins another scoring option and give opponents fits. Jordan also cleaned the glass with nine rebounds and added 9 steals to her great outing.
Jordan saw fit to help her team outscore the Pats 20-7 in the second eight minutes of play to put this one away and in to the win column.
# 11 Christina Graziadei rips down rebound as # 24 Shannon VanShufflin and # 33 Jordan Sahl trail the play.
Sahl hit back to back buckets, and pumped her fist, as the Skins started to run away and hide.
Sahl also was solid in the third quarter as she hit four field goals to add eight points to her impressive total.
Speaking of impressive… how impressive was fellow sophomore guard Madison Zizzi? How about 17 points worth of impressive?
The lighting quick guard used her fast first step to blow by defenders and her two long-range three’s set the tone early as she scored 8 first quarter points to keep the Pats at bay until her teammates found their offensive rhythm.
The big three of Graziadei, Zizzi and Sahl accounted for 49 of Oriskany’s 52 points and made sure that this business trip would end with a happy bus ride home to Oriskany.
Senior Shannon VanShufflin chipped in 3 points and dished out 9 assists to aid the cause.
Head coach Greg Townsend and his Patriots headed south as the tourney’s four seed, with an overall record of 11-7 and, knowing that this would be a tough out. After-all defending champs have a big bullseye on their backs.
Plenty to cheer about for the Redskin nation!
Sackets Harbor defeated Cincinnatus in the opening round to earn the honor of going up against the Redskins.
Problem is… the Skins are the one seed for a reason and ranked number five in the latest state polls.
The first eight minutes of play did give the Pats hope as they scrapped their way through the opening eight and ended up trailing by just seven 12-5 when the quarter ended.
Senior guard Jordan Gonseth scored all 7 of her, team high, points in the first half and tried her best to help keep the Skins within striking distance.
Oriskany jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead as Graziadei and Zizzi scored the first two buckets of the game as both teams started out cold in the first two minutes of play.
A steal and then a deal by Zizzi made it 4-zip with six minutes left in the opening quarter.
The Oriskany defensive effort played a key roll in Sunday’s win as they held the Pats to a paltry five points in the first quarter, seven in the second and third and just two in the fourth.
Offense sells tickets and defense wins championships!
Madison banged home one of her two threes with 1:52 left and Christine Graziadei joined the party with a long three of her own as the horn sounded ending the first at OCC.
Oriskany took its first double-digit lead, of the game, when Graziadei scored again with 3:20 left in the half as the Skins sensed the Pats were on the ropes.
Jordan Sahl scored again from in close and it was a fifteen point lead 25-10 before you could blink an eye.
Graziadei decided it was time to put this one away as she hit back to back shots to widen the margin to 31-10 with 1:10 to go in the half. At the break the Skins were up 31-12.
# 33 Jordan Sahl drives for a second quarter bucket.
With all of the suspense taken out of this semifinal affair the Redskins started rotating in fresh troops from the midway point of the third quarter as they coasted home with the convincing 52-21 win.
Up next for Oriskany is a Class D Section III final appearance against long-time CSC IV rival New York Mills.
The Skins have had their way with the Marauders having beat three times and handily the last time in Oriskany 51-31.
Is the fourth time the charm? Tune in to the all new ESPN 99.1FM on Wednesday night as “ Team My Hometown Sports” covers all of the action from the Carrier Dome.
Oriskay 52 Sackets Harbor 21
1 2 3 4 Total
Sackets Harbor 5 7 7 2 21
Oriskany 12 20 16 4 52
Sackets Harbor:
Jordan Gonseth-7
Samantha Menapace-5
Emma Schultes-3
Jenna Fields-2
Alexandra Townsend-2
Joan Cuddeback-2
Oriskany:
Christina Graziadei-20
Madison Zizzi-17
Jordan Sahl-12
Shannon-VanShufflin-3
