Sunday Sports: Section 3 Basketball preview, Section 10/7 Swimming Championships

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - The Section 3 boys and girls basketball playoffs begin this week, with seedings and pairings announced Wednesday.

We take a look at some of the teams expected to receive high seeds when the post season kicks off.

On the girl’s side, the Indian River Warriors will be the top seed in the Section 3 class A division.

The 18-2 Lady Warriors are coming off another Frontier League A division title, beating Watertown 53-30.

Coach Jim Whitley says class A is an unknown heading into Sectionals.

“It’s really hard. Class A is a tough class to get ahold of how good these teams are. We’ve got Central Square, we’ve got JD, we’ve got CBA. CBA we played, won in a close game,” said Whitley.

In class B Coach Janelle Ferris’s General Brown Lady Lions are slotted as the top seed by seeding average.

The 18-2 Lady Lions closed out another successful Frontier League season by beating Immaculate Heart Central 65-32 to win the Frontier League B division crown.

The defending Section 3 champs made it to the state final 4 last year and Ferris feels her team is poised to make another run in the post season.

“We are definitely I think are the team to beat right now which is a tribute to the girls. They’ve worked really hard in the last couple seasons to get to where they are, and they’ve done a great job. We just, again, will attack each game and try to do our best and hopefully we can make a run,” said Ferris.

In class D, coach Natalie Scott’s Copenhagen Lady Golden Knights are slotted as the 3rd seed.

The 16-4 Lady Golden Knights beat Alexandria 50-41 to win the Frontier League D division title.

Copenhagen enters the Section 3 tournament as defending class D champs and defending New York State Class D champs, which means they are the team to beat as the post season kicks off.

“We know that people want to knock us off and thats fine. They need to work for that. We need to work not to let that happen. I don;t think a lot of people thought that we’d probably be very good this year but these girls work hard each and every year,” said Natalie Scott, Coach, Copenhagen Girls Basketball team.

Over on the boys side, in class B a pair of Frontier League teams will be high seeds heading into the tournament.

The 16-4 General Brown Lions should enter Sectional play as the 4th seed.

The Lions coming off an impressive 64-48 win over Lowville in the Frontier League B division championship game.

Coach Matt Fiske feels his team is battle tested and ready for the gauntlet class B will provide this post season.

“Sectional games get loud. Sometimes emotions change, the score changes, basketball is a game of runs. You got to control those runs and I always say you got to either deal with the pressure or apply it and if we’re able to apply it we’re able to play our game,” said Fiske.

The 15-5 Lowville Red Raiders are currently slated in as the 6th seed and despite losing to General Brown, Lowville coach Zach Shambo says he feels the tough schedule his team played this season will serve them well when Sectionals kick off.

“We’ve had a great schedule, had some great non-league games and the league this year night in and night out was tough, and I think the kids have been getting tougher throughout the year,” said Shambo.

In class D, the Sackets Harbor Patroits are set to be the top seed.

Coach Jeff Robbins team enters sectionals coming off a 64-31 win over Belleville Henderson in the Frontier League D division championship.

The 19-1 Patriots hoping to keep that momentum going as they look for their first sectional win in 6 years.

“We got to come out and play for 32 minutes. We’re going to certainly have to do that in Sectionals. We’ve got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. Sectionals haven’t been kind to us the last several years so we’re just going to take it game by game and start next week and just get ready,” said Robbins.

Section X-VII Boys Swim Championship took place at SUNY Potsdam.

Among the winners of individual events:

For AuSable Valley: Patrick Hagadorn won the 200 freestyle, 500 free; Tim Lloyd won the 100-breaststroke.

Patriots’ Eighth grader Alex Parras captured the 200 IM, and in the 100 backstroke broke the state record by one-tenth of a second at 45.72 seconds.

Plattsburgh’s Cohen Fitzwater topped the 100 freestyle

In the relays: AuSable Valley won the 200-medley, 200 freestyle and 400 free-relays.

AuSable won the overall meet with 360 points, followed by Plattsburgh at 230.

Winning the Section X title was Gouverneur at 180, and Canton-Lisbon-Potsdam at 147.

The two Section X gold medalists were:

Canton-Lisbon-Potsdam’s Luis Guerrero who won the 50 freestyle.

Gouverneur’s Riley Shepard who was champion in the 100 butterfly.

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