State title not meant to be for American Studies

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. - The final horn had sounded and the mourning had begun amongst all 11 Academy of American Studies (AAS) players. Their undefeated season had ended, in a loss to Briarcliff in the state Federation Class AA final, 61-49, at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
Juan Faya, the Lady Eagles’ inspirational coach, put an end to all that. He huddled his players in a circle in front of the bench, bringing them all together one more time.
“I told them how proud I am,” he said. “The result of this game doesn’t change the fact we had a wonderful season and we played like champions until the end.”
“We’ll get over the pain,” he added. “When a few days go by we’ll remember what this season really meant to us and it was absolutely special. Thirty-one and one is just as good to me as 32-0. This is a group of young ladies who came from nowhere, a little B team out of Queens that nobody talked about.”
The Eagles will remember this season as a series of achievements, not just one disappointment. They brought the first PSAL city championship of any kind to the tiny Long Island City school, and put their program on the map. Briarcliff (28-1) took apart Fieldston in the semifinals, 64-37, but had their hands full with AAS.
American Studies led for much of the first half but the Bears had too many weapons - center Shelby Coon (19 points, 13 rebounds) in the paint, Taylor Pescetti (18 points) and Maggie Blair (14 points, eight assists) on the perimeter — and Briarcliff finally found their groove, ripping off a 16-2 spurt to gain a 36-24 lead early in the third quarter.
“We never played a team like this,” said AAS freshman guard Diani Mason, who scored 13 points.
American Studies, though, got the lead down to single digits on several occasions. Mason never stopped attacking the basket. Junior guard Kaitlin Fitzgerald was pressing the Bears down to the final seconds. Senior center Crystal James (13 points) continued to battle the bigger Bears in the paint while junior wing Raquel Gutierrez (17 points) kept on shooting.
“I felt the game was out of our hands,” Gutierrez said, “but we kept fighting.”
American Studies will lose Yessenia Mejia, nicknamed “Mother Goose,” for her ability to keep the team together through tough times, but return the rest of their core. Faya said he would prefer to put off a move to the PSAL’s ‘A’ division after seeing how other top ‘B’ programs struggled. He would like another crack at Glens Falls. So would the Eagles.
“That’s what I’m going to look forward to when I get over this,” Gutierrez said. “We’re going to work even harder, I know I am. I want to win this next year.”