Mar 10, 2025
Jamestown’s Anna Engquist guards Lancaster’s Morgan Molino during the Section VI Class AAA final at Buffalo State Sports Arena on Sunday. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg
BUFFALO — Upon the horn sounding to end the Section VI Class AAA championship girls basketball game at Buffalo State Sports Arena on Sunday night, the Jamestown players retreated to their bench.
Judging from their body language, however, one wouldn’t have known that the third-seeded Red & Green had just lost to No. 1 Lancaster 67-46.
Jamestown certainly didn’t act down in the dumps.
In fact, junior Anna Engquist picked up eighth-grader Carley Daniels and they exchanged a long embrace. When Engquist put her teammate down, they slapped hands and smiled at each other. And when the Legends were receiving their postgame awards, all the players wearing Jamestown red clapped enthusiastically in support of their rivals.
It was no wonder Red & Green head coach Ken Ricker had the countenance of a winning coach when he asked his team to pose for a team photo after the game ended.
Jamestown girls basketball head coach Ken Ricker talks to his team during a timeout in the Section VI Class AAA final against Lancaster at Buffalo State Sports Arena on Sunday. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg
“The second half of the season we just got better, better and better,” he said. “Once we got our first (Erie County Interscholastic Conference Division 1) win and got a little confidence after some heartbreaking losses, was really huge for us.”
Ultimately, Lancaster (17-3) was just too talented, too deep and two experienced. A 19-4 second-quarter run broke it open and the Legends’ lead never got less than 12 points the rest of the way.
McKenna Corcoran scored 22 points and Mississippi State-bound Madison Francis added 12, which all came in the first quarter before foul trouble kept her on the bench for much of the game.
Sophomore McKena Pryce led Jamestown (13-8) with 13 points, eighth-grader Nayani Reid had 7 and Engquist chipped in 6. Pryce grabbed seven rebounds, freshman Alyanna Stam had six and Engquist and eighth-grader Payton Gibbs both collected four.
“(Getting to the sectional title game) was the goal,” Ricker said. “To be honest, I had no idea if we could even try to compete a little bit, but offensively we did some good things.”
To start, the Red & Green was hardly intimidated by Lancaster, which swept their two regular-season meetings by a combined 57 points. In fact, Jamestown finished the first quarter on a 10-5 run and trailed 24-18.
The Red & Green closed to within 24-21 in the first minute of the second quarter as Engquist scored from the low block on a nice drop-step move and Pryce hit one of two charity tosses. But the Legends answered with that dominant five-minute stretch that improved their three-point lead to a 43-25 advantage in the span of five minutes. Jamestown did finish the period strong as Pryce drilled a 3-pointer and Engquist and Daniels combined to convert three of four free throws that narrowed the deficit to 43-31 at intermission.
After the break, the Legends used a 12-4 surge to start the third quarter to build a 20-point advantage that never got under 15 the rest of the game.
The win advances Lancaster into the Class AAA Far West Regional on Friday, back at Buffalo against a team from Section V. For the Red & Green, the season ends with a record that was nearly twice as good as that of the 2023-24 team.
“They got better,” Ricker said. “It’s all credit to these kids. I coach hard, but they know it’s all in love. I see the best of them every day. I see what they don’t see yet, and they shouldn’t because they’re 13 (years old). I just keep telling them it’s there … and no one is going away. The fact they’ve gained this confidence is going to carry over. … I hope our kids feel like they won.”
JAMESTOWN (46)
Brandow 1 0 3, Reid 3 0 7, Pryce 4 4 13, Stam 2 1 5, Tonkin 0 0 0, Daniels 1 3 5, Olmstead 0 0 0, Gibbs 2 2 6, Watkins 0 0 0, Engquist 1 5 7, Totals 14 15 46.
LANCASTER (67)
Booker 3 0 6, Schlesselman 0 0 0, Scibor 0 0 0, Molino 1 0 3, Harrington 1 0 3, Kreutzer 0 0 0, Wilson 1 0 2, Schlotterbeck 4 0 8, Jackson 2 0 6, Corcoran 11 0 22, Farrugia 2 0 5, Francis 5 0 12, Totals 30 0 67.
3-point goals — Brandow, Reid, Pryce, Molino, Harrington, Jackson 2, Farrugia, Francis 2.
Jamestown 18 13 9 6 — 46
Lancaster 24 19 12 12 — 67
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