Regional basketball sends Poland, Cooperstown girls on the road

Jon Rathbun, Times Telegram
·6 min read

Regional play sends Center State Conference schools and Section III girls basketball champions Cooperstown and Poland in opposite directions this weekend and presents a common obstacle; each will meet the state's top-ranked team in its class. Poland and Cooperstown had started the postseason as No. 2 seeds in Section III.

Each game will be played back-to-back with the corresponding boys game for its class featuring squads from two additional Center State Conference schools.

Poland's bench gets loud inside SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College during Section III's Class D championship game Saturday.
Poland's bench gets loud inside SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College during Section III's Class D championship game Saturday.

More:Section 3 girls basketball scores for the 2022-23 season

Poland (22-2) and the Hamilton boys head to SUNY-Potsdam for their games Friday. Poland's opponent is Hammond, the once-beaten champion of Section X.

Cooperstown (19-5) and Dolgeville's boys play in Binghamton Saturday afternoon and evening. Cooperstown's opponent at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena is Union Springs, the Section IV champion and one of the state's two remaining unbeaten Class C teams.

Both teams will be competing for places in the state semifinals and finals the following weekend on the Troy campus of Hudson Valley Community College. The C and D semifinals will be played March 18 with the championship games following on March 19.

Class D

Section III Poland (22-2) vs. Section X Hammond (18-1) at SUNY-Canton, Friday, 5 p.m.

STATE RANKINGS: Ranked No. 1 in Class D by the New York State Sportswriters Association, Poland's Tornadoes are currently No. 3. Hammond was No. 5 in the initial rankings and moved up to No. 1 in the Feb. 7 poll after Poland knocked off West Canada Valley, the Section III neighbor that had beaten the Tornadoes when they were No. 1 and taken over the top spot.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Poland defeated Hamilton in the Section III final for its 10th consecutive victory and 18th in 19 games. The Tornadoes defeated West Canada Valley 50-37 in February to avenge an earlier loss and knock the Indians from the top of the state rankings, and they avenged last year's loss in the sectional finals by beating Copenhagen 66-39 in the semifinals two weekends ago. Poland is a first-time sectional basketball champion.Hammond rolled through a 14-0 regular season and its Class D sectional tournament unbeaten, adding a non-league trip to Copenhagen and a 78-25 win over the reigning state champion in January. Playing in Section X's post-sectionals tournament of champions, the Red Devils added a 54-39 win over Class A Malone-Fanklin Academy before dropping a 35-33 decision to Class B Gouverneur in the March 3 championship game.

Poland's Logan Cookinham dribbles the ball against Hamilton during Section III's Class D championship game Saturday at SRC Arena on the Onondaga Community College campus.
Poland's Logan Cookinham dribbles the ball against Hamilton during Section III's Class D championship game Saturday at SRC Arena on the Onondaga Community College campus.

More:Photos: Poland defeats Hamilton in girls basketball final

PLAYERS TO WATCH: No Poland player has scored more points than senior Logan Cookinham who broke the school record in the Tornadoes' win in the sectional semifinal, and the returning second-team all-state selection averages 23.7 points per game, a figure Section III's leading scorer has increased to 27.5 in the last six games. Cookinham is also top 10 in the section in rebounds, assists and steals; she has 17 double-doubles and two triple-doubles this season. Sophomore Maddison Haver (8.9 ppg) and seniors Sydney Tabor (8.5) and Morgan Weigand (7.7) are Poland's secondary scorers; Haver matched her career high with 17 points against Copenhagen while Tabor scored 13 against Copenhagen and 11 in the final against Hamilton, and Weigand leads the team with 40 three-pointers.

Six-foot junior Landree Kenyon has been the top scorer for Hammond through its postseason run, including a 31-point game against Hermon-DeKalb in the Class D semifinal and 21 in the title game. Hammond beat Chateaugay 53-37 in its sectional title game; her game-high 16 against Gouverneur included free throws that tied the score in the final minute. Senior Sadey Sprabary, another six-footer, and sophomore Ava Howie have been the other top scorers late in the season. Kenyon was fifth-team all-state as a sophomore.

WHAT'S NEXT: State Final Four play is March 18 and 19 on the Troy campus of Hudson Valley Community College. The Poland/Hammond winner meets the winner of a regional between Section V Keshequa and Section VI Panama in the first semifinal at 9 a.m. March 18; the championship game tips off at 10 a.m. the following day.

Class C

Section III Cooperstown (19-5) vs. Section IV Union Springs (24-0) at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena, Binghamton, Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

STATE RANKINGS: Cooperstown moved up to No. 9 this week in the New York State Sportswriters Association's Class C poll after entering the rankings at No. 21 last week; the Hawkeyes were also ranked for three weeks earlier in the season. Union Springs is No. 1 in Class C for the sixth consecutive week and is one of two unbeaten Class C teams in the state; the other unbeaten is Section II Greenwich. Union Springs was No. 3 in the first poll of the season.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Cooperstown nipped top seed Weedsport 64-59 in a Section III title game Weedsport led with 30 seconds remaining; the Hawkeyes scored the final seven points to earn their 13th consecutive victory and 19th in 21 games after an 0-3 start to the season.

That win at SRC Arena in Syracuse was Cooperstown's fourth in six games decided by six points or fewer. One of the three losses at the start of the season was against Section II Greenwich, the other unbeaten Class C team.

Cooperstown won Section III's most recent Class C state championship in 2015 and was preparing for a return to regional play in 2020 when the state playoffs were canceled due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cooperstown Hawkeye Dani Seamon makes her move to the basket against the Little Falls Mounties during a Jan. 12 game in Little Falls.
Cooperstown Hawkeye Dani Seamon makes her move to the basket against the Little Falls Mounties during a Jan. 12 game in Little Falls.

More:Photos: Cooperstown defeats Weedsport in girls basketball final

Union Springs is a first time sectional champion, having beaten Moravia by 20 points in the Section IV final at Tompkins Cortland Community College. The Wolves had beaten Moravia 45-42 in their second-closest game to start the 2023 portion of the schedule.

Union Springs shares programs with Port Byron in multiple sports and the combined field hockey team won Section III's Class D title in the fall. Union Springs was an 88-57 winner when the basketball teams met this winter.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Senior Dani Seamon is the lone holdover from Cooperstown's 2020 sectional title run while Union Springs has Payton Gilbert, Kailey Kalet and Danielle Waldron as seniors who went to a sectional final that year.

Seamon, a 1,000-point scorer, leads Cooperstown in scoring this season at 19.3 points per game and has upped that to 22.7 during the current win streak and 23.8 in the postseason. Junior Rory Nelen has scored in double figures in each playoff game with an average of 14.0 points per game, up from her overall season average of 8.0.Kalet was a fourth-team all-state pick as a junior last winter. She led the Wolves with 18 points in the sectional final.

WHAT'S NEXT: State Final Four play is March 18 and 19 on the Troy campus of Hudson Valley Community College. The Cooperstown/Union Springs winner meets the winner of a regional between Section V Pavilion and Section VI Randolph in the first semifinal at 3 p.m. March 18; the championship game tips off at 11:45 a.m. the following day.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Cooperstown, Poland girls prepare for regional basketball playoffs