Price posts 25 as Stillwater stymies Coxsackie-Athens in Class B quarterfinals

ALBANY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — So much of playoff basketball is which teams get hot at the right time, and few squads are burning brighter right now than Stillwater girls basketball.

The Warriors recorded their 11th straight win Wednesday night, taking down state-ranked Coxsackie-Athens 60-50 in quarterfinal action of the Class B sectional tournament held at Albany Academy.

“They’re playing the best basketball that they have been all season, and this is the time that you want to do it,” said Stillwater head coach Cassidy Chapko. “They’ve been executing on both sides of the floor, playing hard and getting stops – executing when we need to, so I’m very proud of them.”

To take down the 15th-ranked team in the state for Class B, Stillwater turned to junior star guard Miranda Price for a big performance. And she delivered with a game-high 25 points, 10 of which came in the first quarter, as she got the Warriors out to a 14-11 lead after the first eight minutes of game action.

“It felt like a good night of shooting,” said Price. “In warm-ups, I was feeling good, so I think that reflected in the game. We always say we have to start out strong, and that’s what we did. We came out hot.”

For much of the evening, Price was trading punches with Coxsackie-Athens’ sophomore standout, Baileigh Briski. The latter player netted back-to-back field goals to open up the second stanza, giving the Riverhawks a 15-14 edge early in the quarter.

But on Stillwater’s ensuing possession, junior small forward Ana Parella scored a lay-up off an out-of-bounds play, and Price followed that up immediately with her third three-pointer of the first half, reclaiming the Warriors a 19-15 advantage.

That was the start of a 13-2 run, which was capped off by a trey ball from freshman point guard Addison Thornton, giving Stillwater a double-digit edge at 27-17 with 1:59 to play before halftime.

Briski responded, though, with a pair of lay-ups to close the quarter that also closed the halftime margin to six, with the Riverhawks trailing 29-23.

The third quarter opened with a Briski step-back jumper, and all of a sudden, Coxsackie-Athens had closed the gap to four points.

Stillwater answered with another sizable scoring run, outscoring the Riverhawks 15-5 over the final 6:55 of the quarter. The Warriors headed into the final stanza with a sizeable, 14-point lead at 44-30.

After Price converted on a second-chance lay-up at the 6:28 mark of the fourth quarter, Stillwater was held without a field goal make for the remainder of the contest.

Coxsackie-Athens capitalized – a three-point play from senior Riley Sitcer cut the deficit back to single digits with just under three minutes to go on the game clock.

But after multiple empty possessions for the Riverhawks, they had to start playing the “foul game” with time running out. And Stillwater delivered at the charity stripe, shooting 12-16 as a team from the line in the fourth quarter to ice the game.

Thornton was particularly impressive down the stretch; she was sent to the line four times in the final minute, and hit seven of her eight attempts to finish with 16 total points. Parella was the third Warrior to score in double figures; she compiled 11 points off the bench.

Briski and Sitcer combined for 41 of Coxsackie-Athens’ 50 points, netting 24 and 17, respectively.

Stillwater, the four-seed in Class B, will now battle top-seeded Albany Academy Sunday in the semifinal round at Hudson Valley Community College. Opening tip is tentatively slated for 7:30 p.m.; it’ll be the final of six games held at HVCC that day.

Coxsackie-Athens wraps up one of its best seasons in recent memory with a 16-5 overall record.

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