The Dike-New Hartford girls basketball team had its season end with a 73-20 loss at #1 (3A) Mount Vernon in a regional semifinal Wednesday, as aired on 99 The Wave.
The defending 3A champions were crisp out of the gate, and DNH had trouble making shots early. The Wolverines were held without a field goal until early in the second quarter, and couldn’t keep up with the pace of the Mustangs. Mount Vernon poured in 14 three-pointers throughout the night and put the running clock rule in effect for the entire second half.
“I thought we were playing pretty hard, it’s just, I don’t what you do in some of those situations,” Head Coach Matt Dove says. “You’re asking girls to slide over, take away the drive, but then they got shooters all around the perimeter. So you’re just putting them in tough spot after tough spot and you’re hoping that Mount Vernon can miss some shots or make a couple of mistakes. And I mean, you can just tell they’re a well-drilled team on both ends of the floor, do things very well. Talking with Jacob for the game, he’s done an outstanding job this year, coming off a state championship last year, and then just continuing to push and push and has his team playing really well. Ran into a buzz saw, knew it was going to be a tall task, but I’m proud of the kids for how they competed and just kept playing. And that’s all we asked from the beginning. We weren’t going to pay attention to the scoreboard. We were just going to compete. And I thought we did that kids one through 14. So I was happy about that.”
Seeri Smith led the Wolverines with six points, and was one of five seniors who finished their career.
DNH has closed the season at 13-11.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUze3pRBQ9c?si=1sgX7ovPCZzHHEOD&w=560&h=315]
