SECTION IV GIRLS BASKETBALL: NEWARK VALLEY SEEKS 3RD STRAIGHT TITLE (2024-03-02)

Tioga County Sports Report
BINGHAMTON — The Newark Valley girls basketball team will seek a third consecutive Section IV championship when it faces Chenango Forks in the Class B title game Sunday morning.

The contest is a rematch of last year’s championship game, which NV won, 51-35.

Forks (17-4) is the top seed despite the fact NV (21-1) is ranked No. 1 in the state by the New York State Sportswriters Association. The Blue Devils are ranked seventh.

CF has won 13 of its past 14 games, falling only to Class AA Horseheads, 44-43, in the STAC championship. Their last loss to a Class B opponent was Jan. 4 against Waverly, 58-52.

Newark Valley, the No. 2 seed, has won 21 consecutive games following a season-opening loss to Vestal.

Division I-bound Cha Gardner, NV’s all-time scoring leader who also eclipsed 1,000 career rebounds, is the heart and soul of the Cardinals’ game plan.

She will look for support from junior guard Adrianna Finta, sophomore guard Aubrey Kwiatkowski, junior forward Liv Short and sophomore guard/forward Adriana Rich.

The NV roster also includes junior guard/forward Becca Thompson, sophomore guard/forward Anaya Aylesworth, sophomore guard/forward Kim Beebe, freshman forward Kam Short, sophomore guard Anika Smith and 8th-grade guard Haven Aylesworth.

Forks is paced by sophomore Maggie Warpus and senior Alyssa Specchio, who scored 11 and eight points, respectively, in last year’s meeting.

The Devils held Gardner to nine points, but she did pull down a dozen rebounds. Finta and Kwiatkowski combined to score seven points.

Newark Valley won a Class C sectional title in 2022, breezing through the tournament by winning margins of 51, 42 and 40 points, and went on to finish as the state runner-up.

There was no tournament in 2021 due to COVID-19, but the Cardinals were runners-up in 2020 to Norwich.

The game begins at 10 a.m., kicking off a string of six games at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena.

SUNDAY CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Class B Girls: Newark Valley vs. Chenango Forks, 10 a.m.
Class B Boys: Waverly vs. Lansing, 11:45 a.m.
Class AA Girls: Horseheads vs. Union-Endicott, 1:30 p.m.
Class AA Boys: Binghamton vs. Union-Endicott, 3:15 p.m.
Class A Girls: Johnson City vs. Owego, 5 p.m.
Class A Boys: Johnson City vs. Maine-Endwell, 6:45 p.m.

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TCSR STOCK PHOTO.

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