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the Lady Bruins scored the final 5 points of Sunday’s nYS Class aa girls’ basketball title game to beat aquinas institute, 50-48, at Hudson Valley Community College.

Baldwin wins thrilling state title game By ToNY BEllISSIMo tbellissimo@liherald.com

The ultimate goal of Baldwin’s girls’ basketball team was made clear on the opening day of practice Nov. 17, and that was to win the final game of the season. O n S u n d ay m o r n i n g a t Hudson Valley Community College in upstate Troy, the Lady Bruins turned a dream into reality with a thrilling 50-48 roller coaster victory over Aquinas Institute to capture the New York state Class A A t i t l e. S e n i o r M o n i q u e Echols scored the game’s final 5 points, including the goahead layup off a bounce pass from senior Payton Dulin with 1:35 remaining. “It was a crazy game, and I’m super excited we were able to end this on our own terms,”

Dulin said. “We’ve won four counties and three Long Islands in my high school career, and no celebration has felt like this. It’s the best of the best.” It was Baldwin’s first state championship in seven years, and third all-time. “We won two wars this we e ke n d a g a i n s t p r iv a t e school opponents, and I’m so proud of this g roup,” head coach Tom Catapano said. “They’ve etched themselves into the history books among the greatest Baldwin teams. They didn’t crumble under immense pressure.” Junior Alyssa Polonia carried Baldwin to a 32-23 halftime lead with an extraordinary 4-for-4 shooting performance from behind the 3-point arc as she accounted for half of the team’s offense. She fin-

ished with a g ame-high 18 points. Dulin added 11 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, and Echols had 8 points. “We’re just overcome with emotion,” said Polonia, who scored 17 points in a 62-55 win over Central Catholic in Saturday morning’s semifinal. “It doesn’t feel real. There’s going to be ups and downs in a game of this stature, and we just kept our focus and had each other’s backs.” The Bruins (24-2) led Aquinas, a school in Rochester, by as many as a dozen points after Dulin opened the second quarter with a long 3 for a 24-12 advantage. Polonia was automatic from 3-point range in the opening quarter, and added two more field goals to account for 16 of the team’s 21 points. “She was like Steph Curry,”

Dulin said of Polonia. “She rose to the moment.” Baldwin’s lead was 32-23 at h a l f t i m e, bu t w i t h s e n i o r Maddy O’Toole (15 points) and sophomore Loren Green (15) s p e a r h e a d i n g t h e c h a r g e, Aquinas dominated the third quarter. The Irish outscored the Bruins 20-7 in the third quarter, and O’Toole’s buzzerbeating trey gave Aquinas a 4-point lead with eight minutes to go. “Coach always tells us to never get too high or too low,” Echols said. “He just said to stay poised and to go out and

win the fourth quarter. We worked so hard and waited years to get this far — we wanted to finish the job.” Dulin, who had 22 points in the semifinal win, went 4 for 4 from the foul line in the opening minute of the fourth to create a deadlock at 43. Aquinas answered by scoring 5 of the next 7 points to take a 48-45 lead, but senior Samiyah Wr i g h t ’s b a s ke t w i t h 3 : 3 8 remaining would be the last points Baldwin would allow. “They had a g reat third quarter, but we held them to Continued on page 6