STOUGHTON - The Stoughton Central School Bulldogs senior girls’ basketball team won a bronze medal at the provincial Hoopla championship on the weekend.
Competing at the 1A girls’ tournament in Lake Lenore, the fourth-seeded Bulldogs opened with a 62-34 loss Friday to top-ranked Lake Lenore, who went on to win the tournament. Yveian Orpiano led Stoughton’s attack with 15 points, while Nikita Nahbexie had 14.
While they were eliminated from gold medal play with their loss to Lake Lenore Friday night, Stoughton rallied to defeat No. 3 Perdue 43-36 in the bronze medal game Saturday. Orpiano had 21 points for Stoughton and Nahbexie finished with 16.
The Bulldogs began the game down 8-2, but turned it around and finished the first quarter up 12-8.
“Nahbexie was a beast at both ends of the floor in that first quarter,” said coach Scott Kirkness. “She completely turned that game around for us.”
The Bulldogs never lost the lead from that point, but there were some tense moments in the second half. Leading by 10 in the third quarter, Orpiano had to leave the game with a leg injury. Moments later Shelby Vogel went down hard defending the basket.
“That was certainly a concerning moment. But she is just so tough she was able to shake it off and keep making big plays for us. The other factor on my mind was we had two girls sitting on four fouls, and we couldn’t afford to lose either of them. So we had to play fairly conservatively on defense the rest of the way,” said Kirkness.
Top ranked Lake Lenore was actually a joint effort with Middle Lake, and went by the name of the Middle Lake Lenore Lakers. The practice is common among smaller schools who may otherwise not be able to form a team.
Stoughton’s squad nearly found themselves in a similar situation this November, according to Kirkness.
“We did actually consider co-oping with another school in the area, but we just couldn’t work it out. Eventually, these six girls just decided to run it on their own and see how far they could get. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
With a roster of only six girls, the Bulldogs were by far the smallest team at Hoopla this year. It meant that for much of the season, they didn’t have any substitutes, and finished multiple games this year with only four players on the court.
Kirkness added “The stamina and discipline these girls have showed is remarkable. The best basketball players in the world rarely play the entire game. It can be difficult to make it through a game without fouling out even with rest. But to play tight defence, with no breaks, and play it clean? That might be part of what makes this group so special.”
The Bulldogs did end up winning their first ever provincial medal in girls basketball. This was the first time since 1980 that the championships for each classification were held locally for basketball. Hoopla is typically held at one of the universities, hosting all events over the course of a weekend.
