Girl´s Basketball sports insider with Mira Wassef

This is the Kingston team I’ve been waiting to see this season. The scary thing is they probably could’ve played better offensively, but the defense did all the dirty work in the 53-34 win over Minisink in the Class AA championship game.

Rachel Coffey was sensational and Ariana Parker’s defense on Melissa Rivera was exceptional. And Kingston definitely turned it on for this game and never shut it off.  Minisink’s Stefanie Dolson was in foul trouble the whole game, but that was because Kingston went at her and forced her to play defense.

Here is the full Kingston-Minisink game story:

NEW PALTZ- Kelly Kell couldn’t sleep from the anxiety. It only got worse as the Kingston bus rolled in to the New Paltz campus.
Then Kell, a Kingston senior guard, said to herself, “This is it. Here we are.”
Kell’s teammate, Ariana Parker, was so nervous she had a puddle of sweat in her palms before tip-off.
Rachel Coffey doesn’t get nervous, but the Kingston phenom admitted even she was anxious coming into her sixth straight Section 9 Class AA championship game against rival Minisink Valley Monday night.
The nerves were the anticipation of what’s happened the past five years of the great Minisnk-Kingston rivalry. It’s been year after year of excruciating heartbreak and exquisite drama.
So the final showdown between Coffey and Minisink’s Stefanie Dolson, the two greatest girls’ basketball players in Section 9 history, had all the makings of another nail biter.
Not this year. 
Top-seeded Kingston put on a defensive clinic and defeated second-seeded Minisink 53-34 to win its fourth consecutive Class AA championship at SUNY New Paltz. Kingston (19-1) has won five of the last six Class AA titles and is headed to its fourth straight state tournament.
“This is the best defensive game we’ve played in the run of championships,” Kingston coach Steve Garner said. “I liked the whole team’s defensive intensity. It was total team hustle. This was a sweet victory.”
Parker, who is one of the best defenders in the section, set the tone for the game by shutting down Minisink Valley’s best ballhandler, Melissa Rivera. Coffey wouldn’t let Audrey Pooley loose for open 3-pointers and Kingston center Sarah Longto was aggressive on Dolson inside.
“She’s so fast and she moves her feet so quick,” said Rivera, who was held to two points.  “She kept moving me side to side. They figured out every aspect of our game. It was tough but you have to give them credit. They played a great game.”
The aggression was fueled by Kingston’s 57-50 regular-season loss to Minisink back in January at Kate Walton Field House. The Tigers let the Warriors play their game. Pooley hit her 3s and Dolson got her inside game rolling.
So the Kingston players gathered at Kell’s house the night before the game and watched the game tape over a spaghetti dinner. They didn’t like what they saw. They didn’t like shooting 27-for-77 in that game, and they especially didn’t like losing.
“I think that loss sparked us,” Parker said. “It was a wake-up call. It’s always good to get the assignment to guard the best ballhandler.  So the adrenaline kept me going. This feels really good.”
It was a one-point game in the first quarter when Dolson picked up her second foul, and Kingston reeled off a 15-6 run capped by Coffey’s steal and breakaway layup that put Kingston up 23-15 with 3:47 left in the first half. Minisink Valley coach Judy Mottola gambled and put Dolson back in after the run. Dolson then scored three quick points, but Kingston took a 25-18 halftime lead.
Dolson picked up her third foul a minute into the third quarter. Then the Coffey highlight reel began. The sensational Kingston guard had the crowd in a frenzy with a couple of sweet assists. Coffey had a crossover pass to parker for a layup, and then she came back with a behind-the-back fake and found Kell for the easy bucket. Coffey had three straight assists and Kingston blew open the game to take a 39-22 lead with 2:05 left in the third quarter. Coffey than hit a 3-pointer from the corner that bounced off the front of the rim and fell in as the buzzer sounded at the end of the third quarter.
“I had to get something going,” said Coffey, who has won five section championships and is Kingston’s all-time leading scorer.  “I’m not just a regular player.”
Coffey finished with 18 points, including three 3-pointers. Parker had 12 points and Kell finished with nine. Kingston senior forward Charlise Castro had 10.
“This one is so awesome because it was our last year together,” Kell said. “We were pumped for this game.”
“Four in a row feels good,” Castro added.
Dolson isn’t a regular player, either. But the Minisink 6-foot-5 center has been unable to get over the Kingston hump in the postseason. Dolson, who is 1 for 5 in section championship games against Kingston, walked off the court for the last time in her high school career with 54 seconds left. She grabbed her windbreaker in frustration, sat on the bench and buried her face in the jacket. The tears poured out like the did last year when Dolson missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1.1 seconds left that could’ve given Minisink the title.
Dolson finished with a game-high 21 points and Pooley, who was the hero in the regular-season win over Kingston, was held to just three points. Rachel Skinner had four points for Minisink (17-3).
“Kingston-Minisink will always be a great rivalry,” Garner said.
mwassef@th-record.com