Tags: Sparks News
Great article regarding a Saratoga Sparks alumni player and daughter of our current Board Member Stacey Rowland.
https://theundefeated.com/features/queens-college-madison-rowland-record-breaking-hoops-career/
Tags: Player InformationSparks News
The Saratoga Sparks congratulate long time Saratoga Spark Nicole Conley who was named as the final selection of NewsChannel 13's Girls High School Basketball All-Star Team. Conley has enjoyed an outstanding senior season averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds and 6 blocks a game. She is a 95 student and will study engineering and play her college basketball at Union next year.
Tags: Player InformationSparks News
Congratulations to Fonda senior Emily Parslow who is #8 on our NewsChannel 13/Rensselaer Honda Girls High School Basketball All-Star Team. Emily became the school's all-time leading scorer this season scoring more than 1,374 points. She is averaging 23 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds per game.
Tags: Player InformationSparks News
Sophomore guard/forward Kit Small (Slingerlands, N.Y./Academy of the Holy Names) was named to the Second Team while senior guard Shannan Walker (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) earned Third-Team accolades. Both selections are career firsts.
Small led the Hawks in scoring this season, averaging 12.0 ppg. The sophomore was tied for first with 2.2 assists per game and was second on the team in rebounding (6.2 rpg), steals (1.6 spg), field goal percentage (37.6 percent) and minutes played (25.0 mpg). Small finished the 2014-15 campaign scoring double figures in 15 of the final 16 contests.
Walker, meanwhile, wrapped up her collegiate career tied for second on the team in scoring, averaging 8.1 ppg. The senior made a team-high 57 three-pointers, shooting 33.5 percent from long distance, and shot 28-of-38 from the foul line (73.7 percent). Walker led the team in playing time (27.9 mpg) and was third on the team in assists (1.9 apg) and fourth in steals (1.3 spg).
Walker ranked fourth in the SUNYAC in both three-point field goal percentage (33.5 percent) and three-pointers made per game (2.1). For her career, Walker notched 132 three-pointers and dished out 188 assists, tied for eighth-most in program history.
Small and Walker helped lead the Hawks to the No. 3 seed in the 2015 SUNYAC Women's Basketball Tournament, earning a quarterfinal win over No. 6 seed Buffalo State before falling to No. 2 seed SUNY Cortland in the semifinals.
Under the guidance of ninth-year head coach Jamie Seward – who earned his 150th career win this season – New Paltz ended the season 18-9 overall (13-5 SUNYAC), marking a drastic turnaround after a 6-19 (4-14 SUNYAC) record in 2013-14. Small and Walker become the 15th and 16th players, respectively, under Seward to earn All-SUNYAC accolades.
Tags: Player InformationSparks News
The St. John Fisher College women's basketball won the Empire 8 Conference Championship on Saturday, as the third-seeded Cardinals held on for an 86-84 overtime-win over host Ithaca College.
With the win, Fisher (21-6) earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. The Cardinals will find out on Monday afternoon who and where they will play in the 64-team national tournament.
Junior Mary Kate Cusack scored a career-high 41 points and was selected as the Championship's Most Valuable Player. The guard tied the Fisher game-record for 3-pointer with eight for the second time in 14 days. The 41 points were one shy of the Fisher single-game record of 42, set by Melissa Hartman (2005) and Sue Mulroney (1979).
It was a back-and-forth game early on that featured 13 lead changes and six ties.The Cardinals led by as 12 at 19-7 just five minutes into the game. Ithaca came storming, however, and used a 22-3 run over the next seven minutes to take the lead.
The Bombers led 42-38 at the half, but Fisher regained the lead on a 3-pointer from Cusack with 16 minutes left, making it 49-48.
Fisher would lead by as many as eight at 76-68 with just under five minutes left. Ithaca, however, went on a 11-0 run to take a 79-76 lead with just over two minutes.
Cusack again answered for the Cardinals draining a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, knotting the game at 79, where it would stay until the end of regulation.
Fisher would next trail in overtime. Senior Portia Velasco scored back-to-back buckets on Fisher's first two possessions in overtime. Ithaca trimmed Fisher's lead down to one point with just over 30 seconds left. After Cusack converted on 1-of-2 free throws with 12.7 seconds left, the Bombers attempted a potential game-winning 3-pointer from the top of the key as the horn sounded, but the shot clanged off the front of the rim.
Velasco finished with 19 points and four assists, while fellow senior Sydney Bloomstein grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds, while scoring eight points.
