Girls: Westchester Hoopers win GymRat Challenge

The 16u GymRat Challenge up at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs this weekend was loaded with some of the top girl’s teams from the Northeast, and while they may have had a number of challenges along the way the Westchester Hoopers would not be denied as they overcame deficits, foul issues, and in some cases the referees to win the Gold Bracket Championship, proving themselves to be among the top AAU teams now in the area.

It wasn't an easy weekend for the Westchester Hoopers, not by a long shot. They added a pair of talented players in Danielle Patterson (The Mary Louis Academy '17) and Sydney Lowery (St. Luke's, CT '17) to go along with a longtime Hooper in Teisha Hyman (Woodlands '19), and while the chances of making a deep run looked promising to behind the weekend, things definitely got bumpy at times.

The trouble began in pool play game number one on Saturday afternoon when the Hoopers took on the Cape Cod Bulls and they got off to what could best be considered a sluggish start. They trailed at the half and looked to be in serious trouble of losing their opener which would for the most part have ended the Hoopers chances of even making the playoffs.

Luckily for them though they had Patterson on their side as she kept them close to start with 14 points in the opening half, and with a big 16-0 run to open the second half, the Hoopers began to pull away. It was the duo of Desiree Davis (Kingswood-Oxford, CT '19) and Kristen Teklits (New Fairfield, CT '17) that put Westchester over the hump as they both gave the team more offense with Patterson becoming a huge defensive weapon late to pull away for the first game win 61-44.

Pool play game #2 saw the Hoopers face off with CC Basketball, a team with girls primarily from the central part of New Jersey, and once again it was a sluggish and uninspired start by the Hoopers.

Teklits was able to hit some shots from behind the arc in the early going but Patterson wasn't getting the ball in spots to score as much in the first half here as she did in the first game of the day, and Hyman was once again getting doubled and the ball was being forced out of her hands.

The game was tied at 30 at the half, and while things weren't looking great in the opening 16 minutes again for the Hoopers, they once again found a groove in the second half as Patterson came to life to really close things out.

She wasn't just dominating around the rim either, it was a total effort from the newest Westchester Hoopers player. Knocking down face up midrange jumpers, scoring by driving down the wings, while also posting up and spinning around defenders for buckets, she had 14 of her 22 points in the second half to eventually help see her Hoopers team pull away for a 69-58 victory.

To close out Saturday the Hoopers had their final pool game against the Saratoga Sparks (Orange). They were 0-2 so far on the day so it looked like it would be an easy game on paper, and it was.

Playing at 10pm and playing your 3rd game of the day is always a challenge, but because of a quick 25-8 lead, the Hoopers were able to rest a lot of stars. The lone Westchester Hoopers player in double digits was Lowery as she finished with 11 points, while players like Shaye Galletta (Greenwich, CT '17) and Whitney Fulton (Notre Dame, CT '17) each had 9 points apiece as the Hoopers rolled in a 65-34 win.

Saturday was over and the Westchester Hoopers won their pool and were going to advance to the Gold Bracket playoffs, and on Sunday the quarterfinals saw them pitted against another New York power in I-90 Elite Gauntlet, a team that plays on the Adidas circuit, and a team that is loaded with future Division 1 stars.

The Hoopers could not get off to a slow start in this one if they wanted to move onto the semifinals as I-90 features 8 players who already hold Division 1 offers.

They must have known that though as the Hoopers came out as strong as they had in any game so far this weekend doing a tremendous job in getting to the rim and scoring in transition going up early on by as much as 18-8.

It was really the play of Hyman in this one that really set the tone early on as she was able to beat defenders off the dribble and prove to be the best player on the floor for long stretches of the game as she had 8 to lead the way early on and give the Hoopers a 25-16 lead at the half.

While it was a great first half, the thought was that I-90 with all their talent would turn it on sooner than later, and that is exactly what happened as right from the start of the 2nd half, the Upstate, NY power began to chip away. First it was Amani Free (Long Island Lutheran '18) who was able to score both inside and outside. Danielle Rauch (Bishop Ludden '18) was able to lead the team with the ball in her hands to score and create in the open floor, and then it was Anndea Zeigler (Cardinal O'Hara '17) scoring from the wings on the outside which eventually gave I-90 the lead with 7 minutes to play.

All this was happening while Patterson was starting to get in major foul trouble, and with 2:14 left in the game, the star 6'3" forward fouled out with her Hoopers team down 42-38. It seemed like a knockout blow for the Hoopers, but Hyman at this point decided to show everyone in attendance just how good she truly is.

First it was a quick drive around three defenders, then it was a defensive rebound and a coast to coast finish, then it was a runner in the lane and a three-point player. Even though I-90 more often than not was matching it on the other end themselves, Hyman scored 11 points in the final 2 minutes of the game to eventually put her Hoopers team up 49-48 in the closing 8 seconds of the game.

I-90 though had one last chance and Free got a great look from the right wing at a three ball that was more than halfway down before popping out, and Meg Hair (Jamesville-Dewitt '18) missed on a contested putback at the rim as well before the ball was poked out to midcourt as the buzzer sounded to see the Hoopers fight back and hold on for a hard fought 49-48 one-point victory.

That game ended up 2:25pm on Saturday, but there was no down time, the semifinal game against a rested WBA Lady Knicks team who had a bye was tipping at 2:30pm.

Maybe the most interesting storyline about the Hoopers/WBA Lady Knicks semifinal was the fact it provided a rematch of the Section 1 Class "B" Championship Game that saw Woodlands lose in heartbreaking fashion to Irvington as Woodlands star Hyman and her Hoopers team would take on Irvington star Lindsay Halpin (Irvington '17) and her Lady Knicks.

An exhausted Hoopers team got down by as many as 22-10 in the opening half and trailed at the half by 10 and it seemed like the gas was on empty for the Hoopers, but amazingly once again, as had become their ammo, they climbed their way back into this one late in the game.

It was a lot of the secondary pieces as well that stepped up as Devyn Elliott (Cardinal Spellman '18) was really a force in the pain finishing against a smaller Lady Knicks team, and Davis was also coming up big on dribble drive opportunities going one on one and finishing going down the baseline especially.

Sooner than later the Hoopers took their first lead of the game with just over 10 minutes to play but Halpin and fellow guard Katie Popp (Rye '17) wouldn't go away and even though they eventually got down by 6, each hit a with under a minute to go to tie the game back up at 55 with just over 9 seconds to play.

Overtime looked like a distinct possibility, but Teklits, who had really struggled in the two playoff games so far, came up with her biggest shot of the tournament as she drained a three from the left wing at the final buzzer, her only FG of the game, to see the Westchester Hoopers through to the Gold Bracket Championship Game as they won in dramatic fashion once again, 58-55.

The Championship Game would now pit the Hoopers against an extremely talented Jersey Shore Elite team, and as you would expect it was a back and forth contest that wasn't decided until even past the final horn of regulation.

Maybe it was because she made that enormous shot to win the semifinal game but Teklits in this one seemed like she was back to herself to start the title game and was able to connect on long range shots to give the Hoopers the early lead.

The Hoopers led for much of the opening half but were never able to pull away due to the likes of Tori Hyduke (Rumson-Fair Haven, NJ '18) and Courtney Dobrzynski (St. John Vianney, NJ '17) making three ball after three ball to allow Jersey Shore to stay close in the opening half though the Westchester Hoopers did take a 3-point lead into the break.

While the Hoopers looked as if they were the better overall team, Jersey Shore Elite was draining three ball after three ball to not just stay close, but take the lead in the early going on the second half for the first time as in the game overall they ended up making 12 threes, which normally would put a team in a very good spot.

Not necessarily in this game though as Patterson was able to play with her back to the basket and finish strong down low more often than not, and with Teklits and Hyman each doing a great job of attacking the rim late, the game was deadlocked at 55 in the final seconds, and while each team did have a chance to win it in regulation, neither team could find that late bucket to win it and we were headed to OT to decide who would go home the champions.

The first bucket of the OT session went to the Hoopers as Teklits got a beautiful feed from Hyman in transition to score, and then off a Jersey Shore miss, Patterson got the rebound and threw it up the length of the floor to an open Teklits again as she gave Westchester a 4-point lead right away in the 2-minute overtime.

Jersey Shore tried to go back to the well with three balls, but unlike how they were falling in regulation, they missed on all 5 of their attempts in OT which really put them in a deep hole in this one.

Another bucket by Patterson spinning around a pair of defenders put the game away with 34 seconds to go as it just seemed like Jersey Shore Elite couldn't answer anymore and as the seconds ticked away you could see the joy about to burst out of the Westchester Hoopers players and as the final buzzer sounded the celebration began as they were Gold Bracket GymRat Challenge Champions, taking down Jersey Shore Elite for the title 61-56 in OT.

Patterson led the team in scoring once again with 18 points and she was named Tournament MVP. Teklits added 17 points in a huge game of her own, while Hyman was a playmaker and a leader in scoring 12 points in the win.

It wasn't easy at any point, but the Westchester Hoopers proved to be the best and we're going home with the hardware in a much deserved championship effort for a very talented team.