The Red Hook Lady Raiders are small, very quick, and very guard-heavy.
They do not match up well with forward (and center) thinking Wallkill, which ran amok in Red Hook earlier in February and handed Red one of its only lopsided losses of the season. The story didn’t change on March 1 when the Lady Raiders met the Wallkill Panthers in the Section 9 Class A semifinals, and went down to defeat, 74-51.
Predictably, the Lady Raiders had a rough first quarter. The Panthers did their best to beat Kyla Gabriel to her spots, holding her to three points in the period. Julianna Wilkinson, however, was another story—she scored eight points to lead all scorers in the quarter. Her first two baskets came in the quarter off a pull-up shot after a cross-up move at 7:07 and an and-1 off a jump shot at 6:26. Marist Parr also scored in the quarter on a putback. Red’s biggest problem was evident early on, though. To prevent a torrent of baskets in the paint, the Lady Raiders would have to double-team Wallkill’s center, leaving the forwards free to score. The quarter ended with Red trailing 22-13. Four Wallkill players had multiple field goals on the quarter.
Red managed to keep it a little closer early in the second, but slipped late. Ashley Pica managed a bucket for Red Hook at 7:15 to cut Wallkill’s lead to 24-15. Gabriel scored on a rolling, hand-switching drive at 5:02, and Jessica Wilkinson scored on a jumper at 2:26. Wallkill took a timeout at 1:41, recouped, and sent Red Hook into the half trailing 37-22 after a slew of baskets in the post.
The Lady Raiders found some open looks to start the third, but couldn’t get anything to fall, scoring only on a Julianna Wilkinson lay-in in the first three minutes. A six-point scoring run for Wallkill forced a Red Hook timeout at 4:53. Red heated up in the second half of the quarter, behind the combined efforts of Wilkinson and Gabriel. Wilkinson scored at 4:24 on a cut to the basket, at 3:00 on a long three, and sank a pair of free throws at 3:23; Gabriel scored on a putback of an errant Wilkinson shot at 1:05, and then went one-for-two from the stripe at :53, but put back her missed free throw for a field goal. Wallkill, however, matched Red virtually shot for shot and came out of the quarter leading 54-41.
Red couldn’t come close to Wallkill in the fourth. Red Hook head coach Pam White sat Wilkinson and Gabriel at 1:45. The two received thankful cheers from the visiting Red Hook crowd, and Parr scored Red’s last basket of the season at :35 on a lay up.
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