Kenmore East wins A-1 rematch with Williamsville East
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville East's Kaitlin Roseti battles with Kenmore East's Kacie Mills for a rebound during the Lady Flames' 43-37 loss in the Section VI Class A-1 finals last Wednesday at Erie Community College's Burt Flickinger Center. Photo by John Normile

Williamsville East had a ton of momentum coming into last Wednesday's Section VI Class A-1 girls basketball final at Erie Community College's Burt Flickinger Center.

The Lady Flames, seeded fifth in the A-1 bracket, won its first three playoff games, including convincing victories over the No. 4 (McKinley) and No. 1 (Hamburg) seeds and were playing its best basketball of the season. They were unselfish on offense and weren't allowing many teams room to breath with aggressive defense. In addition, this year's A-1 final against Kenmore East was a rematch of last year's final, won by Williamsville East, 48-41.

But the Lady Flames playoff ride came to an abrupt halt, losing to Kenmore East, 43-37.

Williamsville East coach Chris Durr has a good idea why his team came up short this time.

"We missed some easy shots in the first couple of minutes and they got a few fastbreak shots which we haven't given up in the last couple weeks," said Durr. "I think one of the things that hurt us all day was our lack of defensive rebounding. Against Hamburg and McKinley, we rebounded the heck out of the ball and weren't allowing teams anything. Kenmore East was so aggressive that they were able to get some offensive rebounds. That hurt us. Plus we were also not playing great team defense which was disappointing."

Durr said his team only grabbed 24 defensive rebounds and seven offensive rebounds.

Second-seed Kenmore East scored the first seven points of the first quarter and led, 11-7, after the first quarter. Williamsville East cut the deficit to 13-10 in the second quarter but Kenmore East scored six straight points to go ahead, 19-10.

Williamsville East trailed Kenmore East, 24-15, at halftime, but outscored the Lady Bulldogs, 10-7, in the third quarter to be down only 31-25. Williamsville East closed the gap to three a couple of times in the fourth quarter but could not get the lead. Up 38-35, Kenmore East's Meaghan Freund, who had shot horrible the entire game, sank a runner in the lane for her only points to put a win out of reach for the Lady Flames.

With 30 seconds remaining, East turned the ball over which led to 1 of 2 Kenmore East free throws. Williamsville East then missed a three and Kacie Mills (game-high 21 points) hit two free throws to seal the win. She was 7 of 9 from the foul line.

Kaitlin Roseti led Williamsville East with 13 points, nine in the second half, and eight rebounds. Bridget Steele (seven points), Molly Bojanek (six points, five rebounds), Christa Morgante (five points), Jessica Kowalski (four points), and Meghan Scheidemann (two points) also tallied.

Williamsville East, who had been shooting well in the postseason, was 14 of 41 from the floor and committed 21 turnovers. They were 10 of 12 from the foul line.

East finishes 19-5 and graduates Roseti, Morgante, as well as Bojanek, Scheidemann, and Pooja Bakhai.

Roseti led the team in points with 267 for an 11.1 average per game and finishes her high school career fifth all-time at East with 681 points. She also led the team in rebounds (148, 6.2 per game) and blocks (87).

Bojanek led the team in free throw percentage (76 percent) and was second in scoring (156 points, 6.8 average).

Morgante led the team in converted three-pointers (12 threes, 41 percent) and was fourth in scoring (104 points, 4.3 average).

Steele led the team in assists (67, 2.8 average), steals (53, 2.2 average), and field goal percentage (53 percent, 41 of 77) and was third in scoring (111 points, 4.6 average).

Taylor Klun scored 101 points (4.2 average).

East averaged 46.25 points per game and held their opponents to 31.4 points. They also averaged 14 assists, 11.5 steals, and shot 40 percent from the floor, 36 percent from threes, and 57.5 percent from the free throw line.

"I don't think anybody thought we'd be in the section finals," said Durr. "I think we overachieved and played with a lot of enthusiasm over the last couple of games. We knocked of the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds but ran out of luck and energy at the end."

"We had a great year and the kids deserve a lot of credit," he continued. "To have 19 wins is impressive… It's tough to lose five kids but we're looking forward to next year already."

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com