PAVILION, N.Y.-- As the month of March rolled around, we had a Cinderella run within the Section V Class C2 Tournament as #7 York Knights ( 7-3) first defeated #2 Oakfield-Alabama (8-3) 52-47 and then defeated #3, Dundee/Bradford (8-2) 45-35 to reach the tournament finals against #1 Pavilion Golden Gophers. The Golden Gophers had cruised over #4 Bolivar-Richburg 53-28 to set up their finals appearance against their rivals whom they had beat twice in the regular season #7 York Knights.
The #7 York Knights knew they had a tough challenge ahead of them the whole tournament, being the underdog throughout the whole tournament. They pushed hard and made it to the Finals. York started strong with a 4 point lead to end the 1st Quarter.
Pavilion never gave up as they ended the 2nd Quarter with a #3 Karlee Zinkievich layup to end the 1st Half holding a narrow 30-25 lead. York never gave in as they kept fighting throughout the 2nd Quarter to bring the lead back in their favor 42-35 ending the 3rd Quarter on a 17-5 run pushing momentum on their side once again.
As time ticked throughout the 4th Quarter, Pavilion became more defensive and aggressive as the game unfolded and York was applying pressure stunning the Golden Gophers. York's Addison Plank rallied her team with 5 minutes to go and gave them hope that they could beat the reigning champions holding an 8 point lead.
As the time clock became closer to zero, Pavilion started to panic and made mistakes as York capitalized and cashed on a flagrant foul worth 2 shots and showed some York players on the wings to cash in on some 3 point shots. While York had the momentum, it was just a matter of time with 13.5 seconds the York Knights holding on to a 7 point lead would win.
The cinderella story became true for the York Knights as they made history being the first time in sectional history to beat the top 3 seeds in sectional play to win the Section V Class C2 Championship 57-49 against a game Pavilion Golden Gophers team.