ALBANY – There were plenty of times Nazareth could have given up on its season, hung its heads and said, “wait ’till next year.” A state Federation championship is the Lady Kingsmen’s prize for not doing so.
The Lady Kingsmen pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 64–56 victory over Williamsville South (Section 6) in the New York State Federation Class A girls’ basketball final at UAlbany on March 29. Nazareth went on a 12–3 run in the final frame to secure the school’s first Federation crown since it won the Class AA title in 2011.
“It’s like we got rewarded for all of our hard work,” said junior guard Niya Johnson. “We finished with something, even though we had a bad season. We lost a lot of games, but we finished with something. A championship is a championship.”
There were points in the year where Nazareth coach Ron Kelley wasn’t sure if his team was going to give up on things. The Lady Kingsmen, who had hoped to be a Class AA team, finished the season 11–19 after two wins this weekend. It lost close games to division leaders Bishop Loughlin and Christ the King late in the year, and needed a 20–2 third-quarter run to beat Cardinal Spellman in the Catholic state semifinals.
“I thought maybe we would just have to wait until next year and try to refocus again,” Kelley said. “But the girls are tough. They are tough young ladies.”
A big reason for Nazareth’s postseason success was the emergence of junior post Erkyah Russell. Kelley credited her work ethic. Russell won the tournament’s most-valuable-player honors after scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in the final. She has become a vocal leader and was a key to the Lady Kingsmen holding tough with the game going back and forth over the second and third quarters.
“This was a very big weekend for me,” Russell said. “My confidence was through the roof. It’s bigger than it’s been all season.”
Johnson scored 14 points for Nazareth, which led 21–8 in the second quarter. Shalix Hines had 13 points and Alexis Sykes added an all -important 12. She connected on two huge three-pointers during the fourth quarter run that put the game away. Two Johnson free throws put Nazareth up 56–47 with 2:27 to go in the contest. Brianna Neely led Williamsville (25–2) with 18 points.
Nazareth isn’t satisfied with being Class A champs. It plans on using this as a springboard towards and run at a Class AA crown next season.
Nazareth only loses guard Brittney Jackson to graduation after having five Division-I caliber plays exit from last year’s squad. Kelley said having the season end on a happy note and give his players confidence in their individual games and what they can accomplish together will make a firm foundation to build off of.
“They have proven to themselves they can do it,” Kelley said. “They have proven to themselves they can play tough games and win. Going into the ‘AA’ season, I think it will help us win some games — win a lot of games.”
