By Dylan Butler
St. Francis Prep girls’ basketball coach Tom Finn doesn’t have to worry about eating breakfast alone Friday morning.
Thanks to the Terriers’ 59-44 victory over Our Lady of Mercy in the Class B Catholic state championship Sunday at St. John’s University, he can resume what has become an annual meal with Our Lady of Lourdes coach Brian Giorgis in Glens Falls.
For a third straight year, St. Francis Prep advances to the Class B state Federation championship game Saturday at 3:15 p.m. and its opponent for a third time is Our Lady of Lourdes.
The Terriers are hoping to end what has also become an annual occurrence: An Our Lady of Lourdes win in the title game.
“I haven’t really thought about it yet,” St. Francis Prep senior Dawn Gorynski said of playing the two-time defending Class B champs. “We’ll put a game plan together this week. They’re a great team and we’re going to prepare for them.”
Our Lady of Lourdes (27-1) was a great team last year, when they beat St. Francis Prep, 78-51, in the Class B final. This year though, they’re even better.
The Warriors are ranked No. 4 in the nation in USA Today’s Super 25 girls’ basketball poll, have the New York State Miss Basketball in Villanova-bound Jenna Viani and defeated national powerhouses Narbonne (Calif.) and Christ the King — a team St. Francis Prep lost to three times this season.
“Once you get there, it’s an amazing feeling to play on that court. It’s just a great situation,” Gorynski said of playing at the Glens Falls Civic Center. “That was the goal since Day One, to play the best we can and get to Glens Falls again.”
But the road to Glens Falls for St. Francis Prep (22-8) had to go through an Our Lady of Mercy team that improved greatly since the Terriers’ 67-62 season-opening win Dec. 2.
In that game it was Queens College-bound Erin White who sparked St. Francis Prep with 25 points, as the Mustangs’ defense concentrated solely on stopping Gorynski.
In the rematch Sunday, it appeared OLMA (21-5) was focused on shutting down White, but in doing so it freed up Gorynski, who had a game-high 25 points, eight rebounds and three steals.
While Gorynski, who is heading to Lehigh in the fall, was the bulk of the Terriers’ offense, White still managed to hit what Finn called “the biggest shot of the game.”
The Terriers extended a seven-point halftime lead to 11, 32-21, on back-to-back baskets by Gorynski to open the third quarter. But the Mustangs went on an 11-4 run, scoring several baskets through the middle of St. Francis Prep’s 2-3 zone, to cut their deficit to five on a three-pointer from the top of the key by Danielle Simmons (12 points).
White responded quickly and definitively, nailing a buzzer-beating three-pointer from the left wing to give the Terriers a 44-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs got within five again, 49-44, on a putback by Lauren Groom (12 points) with 3:32 left but Gorynski scored six points during the Terriers’ game-ending 10-0 run.
“I’m proud of my kids. They’re not physically big, but they’re big inside,” Finn said. “They give me enough. They always play hard enough.”
St. Francis Prep 68, St. John Villa 63. Villa sophomore guard Christie Marrone stole the show, scoring a game-high 30 points, but it was Elizabeth Yuneman who hit the game’s biggest shots in the CHSAA Class ‘B’ state semifinal March 13 at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights.
The senior guard nailed a three-pointer from the right wing with 2:41 left in the fourth quarter to give the Terriers a 63-61 lead and added another trifecta with 51 seconds remaining, breaking a 63-63 tie.
Yuneman, who also sunk a clutch free throw to extend St. Francis Prep’s lead to 67-63 with 37.2 seconds left, netted a team-high 19 points. Gorynski added 17 points — 13 in the third quarter — and Kennedy netted 16.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
