With 41 seconds left, down 57-54, Fredonia (12-10) called a timeout to draw up a play to tie the game. Fredonia was able to get a look out of the timeout and found Kelly Gullo some space beyond the arc, but the shot just missed the mark. Anna Buchanan grabbed the rebound and Nagely Vazquez was passed the ball and was sent to the line, where she made it a two-point deficit, 57-55.

“I just said lets wipe the board clean, we’re down 0-3, it’s going to come down to integrity and grit and just your overall passion,” Fredonia head coach Dan Vona told his team during the timeout. “They knew the situation. We had two clean looks at 3’s… we could’ve tied it, but what are you gonna do?”

Then with only about 15 seconds left, Fredonia needed a turnover on the inbound, but was unable to get it and resorted to fouling Emalee Ballou. She had Fredonia’s season in her hands, and ended it by making both of her free throws to make it a two possession game. Fredonia gave one last chance at throwing up a quick shot, but missed and lost 59-55.

If you only watched the first quarter you wouldn’t have been surprised by the narrow Eden (16-5) victory, as the Lady Raiders were the better team at the start. Jessica Zittel was the hottest player on the floor in the first quarter, as she scored 15 of Eden’s 19 points. Eden held around a six-point buffer for most of the first quarter, but towards the end, Fredonia started to adjust defensively. Fredonia made it a one possession game at 19-16.

Fredonia’s Kazlin Beers takes the ball away from an Eden player during Saturday’s Section VI, Class B2 girls basketball quarterfinal at Eden High School. Fredonia’s season came to an end with Saturday’s loss to Eden. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms.

Fredonia brought a balanced attack as several players were utilized in the offense early on. The Lady ‘Billies found most of their success attacking the basket and driving the lane against the Lady Raiders defense. Shortly into the second quarter Fredonia grabbed the lead as shots from Beers and Buchanan found their way into the hoop.

“I had to change things up last minute, Sam Tabone was out with an illness,” stated Coach Vona. “She’s usually in our starting lineup, but filling in her shoes I put Gabby Matos in there. So we kind of had the three bigs, so I didn’t really have that outside shooting presence offensively. We had to throw some different offenses in there, we kind of made them up to find gaps with the three bigs. They had some great internal passing with Anna Buchanan, Nagely and Gabby.”

Fredonia outmatched Eden in the second quarter and looked in control headed to halftime with a 32-30 lead. Beers had 13 points at halftime, while Vazquez and Buchanan had eight and six points, respectively. The defensive adjustments had worked as Fredonia locked down Zittel the rest of the game, only giving up five points to her in the remaining three quarters.

“We had to lock her down. She had a good step back move off the dribble, so we had to get in her face,” Vona said about defending Zittel and adjusting their team defense. “We played pretty good defense. You have Anna Buchanan who has very long arms, she can get in the passing lanes and Nagely just has a keen awareness for blocking shots.”

Coming out of half both teams looked flat and struggled to score or put together good offensive sequences. Fredonia had its worst offensive quarter of the game in the third, only scoring nine points the Lady ‘Billies lost the lead halfway through.

Eden’s offense awoke from its second quarter slumber, but it was not Zittel who was still being locked down, rather it was captain Brooke Woodard. After only scoring two points in the first half, Woodard hit two 3-pointers and layup for eight in the third.

Headed into the fourth quarter it was a one possession game with Eden on top, 42-41. Similar to the second quarter, Fredonia regained the lead early in the fourth quarter on a shot from Beers. Fredonia looked to have regained the momentum once they were able to get a two possession lead off buckets from Beers, Maddy Marsh and Gabby Matos.

Up 53-47, Fredonia looked poised to hold off Eden, but the Lady Raiders called a timeout after two free throws from Zittel. The Lady Raiders were able to get the ball again right out of the timeout on a quick turnover and Woodard hit a big 3-pointer to make it 53-52.

Fredonia went to respond with a quick score on the next possession, but Gullo was fouled and couldn’t get up a shot. Gullo only scored one at the charity stripe to make it a two point game, which opened up the opportunity for Ballou who hit a shot to tie it just inside a minute at 54-54.

On the next possession for the Lady ‘Billies, Eden’s defense was able to force another clutch turnover and then put the ball in the hands of its captain Woodard. Woodard decided to drive to the basket, tempting Fredonia’s bigs for a foul and she got exactly that and more. Woodard hit her shot for an and-one that made it a three point game at 57-54.

After a series of back-to-back travels by both team’s, Fredonia called a timeout at 41 seconds to draw up a play to tie the game. Fredonia was able to get a good look beyond the arc from Gullo, but the shot just missed the mark and set the table for the eventual 59-55 final. Ballou hit the final two shots of the game to send the Lady Raiders to the Section VI Class B2 semifinals, 59-55.

“It was a great battle,” stated Coach Vona. “Hats off to Eden, they are a very high basketball I.Q. team and program. I knew that going in, they move well with and without the ball.”

Fredonia was led by a strong effort by seniors Kazlin Beers with 17 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals and Nagely Vazquez with a dominant 16 rebounds, 16 points and four assists. Buchanan ended with eight points and Matos had seven points.

Zittel ended with 20 points and Woodard had 15 points.