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Two In A Row

Bears Beat Greenwich 59-52 In Class C Championship Game

Frewsburg’s Jadyn Trocki holds up the NYSPHSAA Class C championship plaque alongside teammates Abery Harvey, center, and Jaden Jimerson, left, after the Bears beat Greenwich in the state title game Saturday evening at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

TROY — The Frewsburg Bears are state champions.

Again.

Junior Jadyn Trocki had 26 points, six assists, five rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots as Frewsburg rallied from a double-digit, first-half deficit to beat Greenwich 59-52 in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C title game Saturday evening at Hudson Valley Community College.

“I’m speechless. Going back to back is insane,” Trocki said postgame. “Winning one is crazy. Going back to back at a small school with three starters gone from last year is crazy.”

Trocki added: “The way my teammates stepped up this year is just huge.”

Frewsburg head coach Sierra Beaver hugs assistant coach Jamie Sposato after the final horn. P-J photos by Matt SpielmanFrewsburg head coach Sierra Beaver hugs assistant coach Jamie Sposato after the final horn. P-J photos by Matt Spielman

The Bears trailed by 13 after the first quarter and by 14 midway through the second, but Trocki scored 12 points in the final 4:40 of the first half to keep Frewsburg alive while senior Abery Harvey and sophomore Elysse Gruber – the team’s two tallest players – were on the bench in foul trouble.

“I knew that we needed a bucket,” Trocki said. “My teammates helped me come off screens and get open, and I just hit a few shots.”

“It’s pretty unreal. To be down (13) in the first quarter, foul trouble. I literally thought to myself, I could not have written up a more stressful, worse start to this game,” Frewsburg head coach Sierra Beaver added. “I just said, ‘Let’s just weather the storm’ and I thought maybe we could get a run later on.”

Trocki hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining in the second quarter to pull Frewsburg within three, then shared a chest bump with Beaver as the halftime buzzer sounded.

“I think that was our first chest bump, hopefully not our last,” Beaver said. “She came over and she was frustrated that she wasn’t getting buckets to knock down from the outside,” Beaver said. “I said, take what the defense is giving you right now. Everything outside is a little short. Drive to the basket, get some sweat going … and then they’ll fall. She hit one a little earlier than that too and I feel like at that point, the nerves were gone and she was ready.”

Frewsburg head coach Sierra Beaver hugs assistant coach Jamie Sposato after the final horn. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

Trocki gave the Bears their first lead of the game with 5:02 left in the third quarter, but a 7-0 run by the Witches put Frewsburg in another hole.

“We have one senior on the team. As far as height goes, we really have two players with any height,” Beaver said. “When you take them off the floor, it completely opens up the other team’s playbook. … People getting in foul trouble is our worst-case scenario, for sure.”

Gruber and Harvey scored on back-to-back trips before sophomore Jaden Jimerson’s three-point play made it 37-36 Bears with 1:16 left in the period.

They would never trail again.

“I had to lock in for my team,” Harvey said. “I couldn’t foul out in the biggest game of the year.”

Frewsburg's Jadyn Trocki drives past a Greenwich defender. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

Greenwich opened the fourth quarter 0 for 9 with two turnovers and didn’t make a field goal until Bailee Wolfe’s basket with 2:20 remaining. By that point, it was 49-40 in favor of Frewsburg.

“They have a lot of shooters on the outside. Our game plan was to not let them get shots from the outside,” Beaver said of the Witches. “For whatever reason, they were able to wiggle loose, and I felt like for that four-minute stretch at least, we were able to lock down a little bit more and make every shot that they got be a little bit more difficult.”

The Witches cut it to 53-48 with just under a minute remaining on a Brooke Kuzmich 3-pointer, but the Bears went 8 for 8 at the foul line in the final two minutes to put the game away.

“For the program, it’s huge. Our fans are all we need,” Harvey said of the win. “They motivate us. … It’s huge to go back to back.”

Frewsburg became the first Section VI girls program to win back-to-back titles since Pine Valley won three straight from 2003 to 2005. The Bears are also the sixth Class C program to go back to back and first since Millbrook in 2022 and 2023.

“It’s something that you hope and dream,” Beaver said, “but you don’t really expect it to happen.”

NOTES: Harvey had 13 points, four rebounds and two assists; Jimerson had 10 points and three assists; and Gruber had nine rebounds for Frewsburg, which shot 21 of 53 from the field, including 4 of 12 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over nine times. … Bailee Wolfe had 15 points, five rebounds, three blocked shots, three assists and two steals; Olivia Davis had 13 points and nine rebounds; and Kuzmich had 12 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and two steals for Greenwich, which shot 19 of 56 from the field, including 5 of 22 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 11 times.

FREWSBURG (59)

Trocki 9 5 26, Jimerson 4 2 10, Stelmack 0 0 0, Darling 0 0 0, Haglund 1 2 5, Moore 1 0 2, Harvey 5 3 13, Gruber 1 1 3. Totals 21 13 59.

GREENWICH (52)

Kuzmich 6 0 12, Gonzalez 0 0 0, BWolfe 5 2 15, Davis 4 5 13, JWolfe 2 2 6, Jansen 2 0 4, Celani 0 0 0. Totals 19 9 52.

3-point goals-Trocki 3, Haglund, Kuzmich 2, BWolfe 3.

Frewsburg 5 19 13 22 – 59

Greenwich 18 9 9 16 – 52

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