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March 9, 2010

Wild finish to Keysor Era

Ogdensburg defeats Saranac with last-second free throws

By RYAN HAYNER

DID YOU KNOW?

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POTSDAM — Overtime seemed inevitable after Saranac tied the game with 7.4 seconds left in regulation.

But Ogdensburg's Megan Morrison received a pass, raced downcourt and got off a running jumper 15 feet from the basket.

Her shot missed, but Morrison drew a shooting foul.

With four-tenths of a second remaining on the clock, the senior coolly sank both shots from the stripe.

Saranac's final desperation heave from behind halfcourt never had a chance.

Morrison finished with a game-high 27 to lead the Blue Devils to a wild 46-44 finish over the Chiefs in the NYSPHSAA regional first round at SUNY Potsdam Tuesday.

Ogdensburg (15-8) moves on to the second round of regional play and will face Section II's Watervliet at Hudson Valley Community College Saturday.

The loss marked the final game for Saranac coach Chad Keysor, the all-time winningest Section VII girls' basketball coach, who goes out with 301 career victories.

He said it didn't hit him yet that he had coached his final game.

"I'm real proud of our season; the state of the program," he said. "I told the girls in there, 'In the end, we're still champions.'"

Keysor did say the ending made it a tough way to go out.

Saranac held a 42-41 lead in the final three minutes before Mackenzie Cole connected on a layup to put the Blue Devils up by one.

After two minutes of missed opportunities and no scoring by both teams, Saranac forced a turnover with 37.8 seconds remaining.

Ogdensburg stole possession right back by forcing a jump ball and Lindsay Drummond connected on the front end of a one-and-one to give the Blue Devils a 2-point lead.

Becka Horton threaded a long but accurate pass to Katie McCasland right under the basket. McCasland layed it in to knot the score at 44 with 7.4 seconds left.

Morrison then did what she had done several times throughout the night — draw a shooting foul.

Keysor said the call was "very questionable."

"I've never seen a game where you make that call with .4 seconds to go on an off-balanced, running, one-handed (shot)," he said. "But, they made the call and I give her credit — she stepped up and made the foul shots."

Saranac's plan at the end, Keysor said, was to try to draw a foul on the final in-bounds pass, but that never came to fruition.

He said the Chiefs missed too many opportunities and kept the Blue Devils in the game.

Trailing 15-11 after the first quarter, the Blue Devils used an 18-11 second quarter to go into the half with a 3-point lead.

The Blue Devils were aided by success and frequency at the free throw line, where they made 13-of-17 during the first half.

"That kept them in the game," Keysor said. "They definitely call a different game up here. I was disappointed — this was a state playoff game and usually the officials let you play.

"I'm not blaming the officials in any way, but I was surprised they called a tight game that way."

Saranac used a 7-2 run to close out the half and enter the fourth quarter ahead, 40-37.

The run was keyed by successive layups from Mychelle Favreau, who led the Chiefs with 14 points.

But the Chiefs' offense sputtered in the final frame.

Saranac shot just 1-for-13 from the field — the lone make coming on the game-tying bucket from McCasland — and made just 2-of-6 at the charity stripe.

"We got some really good looks, but just had some roll out," Keysor said. "Maybe we got a little nervous in situations and lost our confidence.

"We missed some opportunities; that's what I mean by allowing them to stay in the game. We would get up by 3 or 4 and we'd get that shot and miss it, miss a foul shot. We couldn't get that lead out to two possessions."

The Chiefs (17-5) had trouble all game guarding Morrison, a 1,000-point scorer for the Blue Devils.

She knocked down two triples, both in the second quarter. The first tied the game at 19 and the second, with 4.9 seconds left in the half, gave Ogdensburg a 29-26 lead.

Morrison also went 9-for-11 at the charity stripe.

"She's a phenomenal player," Keysor said. "We heard a lot about her, but she was great tonight. There's no offensive player like her in our league."

As Keysor and the Saranac players exited the Jerry Welsh Gymnasium following the game, the contingent of Chiefs' fans offered the departing coach and his team one final round of applause.

Ogdensburg 46, Saranac 44

Saranac (44)

M. Bowman 3-1-8, Horton 1-0-3, Favreau 6-0-14, King 0-0-0, Pellerin 0-0-0, A. Bowman 2-0-4, Ducatte 1-0-2, McCasland 3-0-7, Linder 1-4-6. Totals: 17-5-44.

Ogdensburg (46)

Drummond 0-3-3, Dodge 0-2-2, Giglio 1-0-2, Martin 1-1-3, Cole 4-1-9, Morrison 8-9-27, Damms 0-0-0. Totals: 14-16-46.

Saranac1511144—44

Ogdensburg111889—46

3-point goals: Saranac (5) Favreau 2, M. Bowman, McCasland, Horton. Ogdensburg (2) Morrison 2.

E-mail Ryan Hayner at: rhayner@pressrepublican.com

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