Union Springs beats Hawkeyes for regional title

Cooperstown's fourth-quarter comeback isn't enough as Wolves win, 60-47

(Cooperstown senior Dani Seamon attempts a layup as Union Springs senior Danielle Waldron tries to block the shot Saturday in the Central Region championship. Photo by Mike Perrino.)

BINGHAMTON — Cooperstown played an incredible fourth quarter but it wasn’t enough to topple the top-ranked team in Class C as Section IV champ Union Springs beat the Section III champion Hawkeyes, 60-47, to win the Central Region Class C girls basketball title Saturday, March 11, at Visions FCU Veterans Memorial Arena.

The undefeated Wolves led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter, but the Hawkeyes scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter and got as close as eight points down the stretch before suffering a season-ending loss.

“I’m really happy how we responded at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Cooperstown Coach Mike Niles said. “That could have been throw the towel in kind of a thing.

“That’s pretty impressive, especially considering the kind of people we were playing against,” he continued.

Cooperstown senior Dani Seamon scored 13 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, including an NBA-range three pointer from the top of the key with 3:27 remaining to close the gap to eight points, 53-45.

However, Union Springs followed a time out with a jumper by senior point guard Kailey Kalet and two layups and a free throw by freshman Jennifer Daum to close out the win and send the Wolves to their first Final Four in the sport.

Kalet led the Wolves with 20 points, senior forward Danielle Waldron scored 14 points and senior forward Ella Johnson scored 10 points. All three made incredible outside shots to help Union Springs build its lead, from 14-6 after one quarter to 32-19 at halftime and 49-29 after three quarters.

“There's very outstanding athletes over on that other side, and they played hard and they have good energy,” Niles said. “Waldron hits like four threes … tonight, in the Arena, which is supposed to be bad for shooting.

“I didn’t see a season stat report on them, but I considered her a big,” he said, “I thought we would be okay between Dani and Savannah (Kirkby) and Claire (Jensen), running with what would be their two bigs. But then Waldron goes out and shoots the lights out. That’s not the story of the game, but basically, maybe, the most statistical anomaly of the whole thing. You’re playing your guts out and you’re almost at the shot clock and then their power forward hits a three.

“It ought to be disheartening, but our kids … especially the response at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I thought was great,” he said.

Seamon also had four rebounds. Junior Rory Nelen scored seven points and had seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, sophomore Brenna Seamon scored nine points and had six assists and three rebounds and Jensen scored four points for the Hawkeyes.

Union Springs also stifled the Cooperstown offense, especially in the first half and in the half court.

“They definitely run well and they get up the court, but their rebounding is fantastic,” Niles said. “They played pressure defense and you have a kid like the senior Kalet kid on the perimeter.

“We kind of thought we’d have to play basically broken offense, because they are going to be pressuring us, so it is going to be a lot of dribbling and a lot of ball-screen stuff,” he said, “but the other thing is they are so strong that it was really hard to turn the corner. … Good luck doing it against their defenders. They are strong and they are fast.”

Cooperstown, which finished the season at 19-6, will graduate five seniors in June, Seamon, Jensen, Kirkby, Meghan Niles and Hannah Craig. However, Niles said he is excited about his returning players and happy they got to experience playing in a regional game against a great team.

Union Springs (24-0) will play in the Class C semifinals against Western Region champion Randolph in Troy on Saturday, March 18.