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Storm fall on home court

Saranac Lake’s Roslyn McClatchie dishes the ball underneath during the first quarter of Tuesday’s game against AuSable Valley. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake girls basketball team came up short against the visiting Patriots, but history was made as the Red Storm hosted their first Section VII playoff game in at least two decades Tuesday.

AuSable Valley, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, won 46-27 and will play top-seeded Northern Adirondack in the second round Monday.

Roslyn McClatchie led the way for the Storm Tuesday night with seven points, while Kailee McCormick followed with six. Kylee Clark and Kayleigh Merrill contributed five points each, and Mistre Newton rounded out the scoring for Saranac Lake with four.

Saranac Lake senior Jayda Buckley was out of the game, and missed the last few games of the season due to injury.

AuSable Valley’s Hannah Rondeau poured in a game-high 21 on the night, while teammate Leah Shay chipped in nine.

Saranac Lake’s Kaleigh Merrill drives to the hoop against AuSable Valley during Tuesday’s Section VII, Class C playoff game at Saranac Lake High School. (Enterprise photo — Justin A. Levine)

Red Storm coach Frank Johns said the game plan was to try and shut down Rondeau and Koree Stillwell, who ended the game with five points.

“We started out pretty decently, and then we started to falter as the game went on,” Johns said. “We figured if we could keep their (Rondeau and Stillwell) numbers down, we would have an opportunity to be successful. We kept Stillwell’s numbers down a lot, but Rondeau took control.

“We were hoping we could keep her under control, and we just couldn’t.”

Rondeau scored 17 of her 21 in the first half as the Patriots went into the break up 24-11, but Saranac Lake came out swinging in the third, and outscored the visitors by one. Johns said that Clark got called for her second foul early in the second quarter, and had to sit the rest of the half to avoid running into foul trouble.

“She’s our best defensive player, Kylee Clark,” he said. “She’s the one that held Stillwell to zero” in the first half.

Johns also faulted the number of turnovers, and lamented the lack of scoring off of turnovers that the Red Storm created.

Three girls from the junior varsity squad were brought up for the game, as eighth-grader Alex LaDue, ninth-grader Kelsey Lereet and tenth-grader Nora Glover all saw playing time, with Johns adding that he expects all three of them to be on the varsity squad next season.

“We’re going to have Mistre Newton, Maggie Carpenter, Kylee Clark and Faith Rothaupt” as returning players next year, Johns said. “There’s a good nucleus there. I tried to expose the young kids to the varsity level. I wanted them in there, and it was good for them.”

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