Emma Willard Beats Panther Girls Hoop Team 33-32 In Early Start

by Gary Danforth
In a bizarre circumstance in which, for the first time in forty five years of watching high school basketball, this writer saw the varsity game played before the JV game, the Hoosick Falls Central School varsity girls hoop squad dropped the first game of a doubleheader last Monday evening, December 7, by a slim 33-32 score to the Emma Willard High School Jesters. Apparently, as told to this writer by a member of the HFCS hoop squad, the varsity referees showed up for the varsity game a few minutes before the JV game was to take place on the Jesters’ Troy campus. Rather than wait for the second game, the two varsity teams jumped center at around the 4 pm JV tipoff time. No problem as long as you were expecting the varsity game to go off one and one half hours before the slated tipoff. As it was, the JV start time had been pushed ahead two hours of the usual start time for junior varsity contests. What was seen of the game looked to be an extremely competitive affair with the Panthers not being able to get the go ahead points in the last three minutes of regulation play to drop to 0-3 in this young 2009-10 round ball campaign. Earlier, Hoosick Falls had lost to Hoosic Valley in their season opener and also dropped a non league contest to Burr-Burton Seminary of Manchester, Vermont.
The Jesters jumped out to a 12-6 lead after one quarter and pushed their non-league advantage to 23-11 at the break. HFCS closed to 28-21 at the three quarter break before coming up just short in their 33-32 loss.
Shelby Jones with 9 points, Alexis Hagadorn, 6, Alyssa Schneider, 6, Samantha Skott, 5, Emily K. Wilwol, 4, and Frankie Pearson, 2, scored for HFCS. The Panthers couldn’t stop the Jesters’ Fatima Johnson who led all scorers with 21 points and scored most of the Jesters’ 33 points. Next up for the HFCS girls is a trip to Cambridge this Friday night, December 11. Then, on Friday, December 18, Hoosick Falls will entertain Schuylerville. On the bright side, Emma Willard’s campus looks like a college campus with its old architecture and beautiful buildings. Their gym looked to have a tartan playing surface as it sure wasn’t wood the girls were playing on. I believe Yankee owner George Steinbreiner’s wife went to Emma Willard and he met her when he was going to Williams College in Williamstown, over the mountain on Route 2.