“I compared her demeanor-wise and character-wise to (former Red Raider student/athlete) Stephen Carlson, which is the Mount Rushmore of kids I’ve gotten to know,” he said. “You could just see it in her, and nothing has changed.

“How many kids, just 100% of the time, do the right thing? She does. She’s just amazing.”

O’Brien is pretty good at hoops, too.

The 5-foot-11 senior poured in 22 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to lead the third-seeded Red Raiders to a 51-45 victory over No. 7 Frontier in the Section VI Class AA semifinals at Sweet Home High School on Thursday night.

Jamestown’s Kylie O’Brien grabs a rebound during Thursday’s Section VI Class AA semifinal against Frontier at Sweet Home High School. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg

The win sends Jamestown (15-5) into the championship game at 7 p.m. Sunday at Buffalo State Sports Arena against No. 1 Lancaster (19-1), which held off No. 4 Clarence 59-51 in the other semifinal.

“We’re playing with house money,” said Ricker.

O’Brien was “money” from the low block against the Falcons.

A three-sport athlete for the Red Raiders, O’Brien played the best game of her basketball career, according to her coach.

“She’s had a few of those 20-point/20-rebound games for us,” Ricker said, “but on this stage, with the early deficit … she was just amazing.”

Jamestown needed her to be.

Trailing 20-11 after the first quarter — only a pair of 3-pointers by senior Mickia Freeney kept it that close — the Red Raiders started the second period on an 8-2 run, including 6 points from O’Brien. By halftime, she had 12 points, although Jamestown still trailed 31-25.

O’Brien was just getting warmed up.

As were her teammates.

The Red Raiders outscored the Falcons 14-6 in the third period — O’Brien had 6 points, Alyson Canfield 5 and Freeney drilled another trey — to seize the lead 39-37 entering the final eight minutes. And when senior Marley Drake scored on a floater in the first minute of the fourth quarter and then hit a layup a minute later, Jamestown’s lead was extended to 43-37. Frontier got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Fittingly, O’Brien made sure of it.

With the Red Raiders leading 49-43 inside of two minutes, they were having difficulty getting a good look at the basket, so with the shot clock winding down, O’Brien had to take a desperation 3-pointer from the wing that looked good when it left her hand. While the jumper didn’t fall, it did hit the rim and the ensuing scramble resulted in a held ball. The alternate-possession arrow favored Jamestown.

In addition to O’Brien’s huge effort, Freeney had 11 points and four assists; and Canfield scored 11 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. Drake, the team’s leading scorer all season, was held to 7, but that turned out not to matter, because the Red Raiders’ defense limited the Falcons to 14 points in the second half.

“(Drake) had 31 the other day and carried us, got us one round further and today everybody had her back,” Ricker said.

Paris Izzo led Frontier, which has lost to Jamestown three times this season by a total of 14 points, with 17 and Mya Brown had 8.

“We’ve been in the playoffs, really, for seven games,” Ricker said, “because (securing the No. 3 seed was so important). I put that sectional patch up on our board in our locker room about a month ago and said, ‘Let’s just get a patch.'”

Fittingly, before they left the gym to make the bus ride home last night, the players gathered for a team “selfie,” and yelled in unison, “We’re going to ‘Buff State.'”

“Once you get there, who knows?” said Ricker, who saw his team fall to Lancaster and its star, Madison Francis, twice during the regular season by scores of 92-49 and 77-49. ” … We’re going to do what we do and we’re going to do it for 32 minutes. It’s just play in the moment.”

FRONTIER (45)

Theisen 1 0 2, Muka 2 0 5, Zglinicki 3 0 6, Brown 4 0 8, Izzo 7 1 17, Petrie 0 0 0, Vicaretti 3 1 7. Totals 20 1 45.

JAMESTOWN (51)

Freeney 3 2 11, Drake 3 1 7, Canfield 5 0 11, Engquist 0 0 0, O’Brien 8 6 22. Totals 19 9 51.

3-point goals–Muka, Izzo, Freeney 3, Canfield.

Frontier 20 11 6 8 — 45

Jamestown 11 14 14 12 — 51