Battling foul trouble and Valley Central High School, the Beacon High School girls basketball team came away with a 43-34 first round semifinal win on Tuesday in the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament at Wallkill High School.
Basketball in Hoop
The Bulldogs will face Wallkill, at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Wallkill defeated New Paltz 45-39 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
“It would be a great win for us,” said Bulldogs coach Christina Dahl, whose team improved to 5-3. “We’re going to focus on defense and let that create offensive opportunities for us.”
Although Dahl said Lauren Schetter spent “a good portion of the game” on the bench in foul trouble, she led Beacon with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“Sometimes she seems to be unstoppable,” Dahl said of Schetter. “She’s a tremendous player, a tremendous athlete.”
Teammate Leandra Echi finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.
Beacon led 12-8 after the first quarter and was able to manage the game from there, despite the foul trouble. Dahl praised the play of her reserves, as well as her team’s defense.
“We got some good minutes from our substitutes,” Dahl said. “Defensively we played well and we had great minutes from our bench players that helped us sustain the lead throughout the game. It was a good win for us, coming off the loss to Somers (on Dec. 22).”
A.J. Martelli: amartelli@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4836, Twitter: @AJM_PoJoSports