Fall Mountain girls basketball shuts down Stevens to reach D3 title game

KINGSTON – Coach Matthew Baird-Torney felt like his Fall Mountain Regional High School girls basketball team had a chance of taking a step in the right direction after his lone senior Clara Stewart and junior Riley Beckwith returned to the team after ACL injuries last year, but it was just a question of how quickly his team could mesh together.

It took a couple of weeks for him to realize that his team would be OK and now the Wildcats have one game left with a Division III championship in their sights.

Second-seeded Fall Mountain broke the game open against upset-minded No. 14 Stevens by outscoring the Cardinal 17-5 in the second quarter on the way toward a dominant 61-24 victory Tuesday in the D3 semifinals at Sanborn High School.

“We thought we’d get a bump with them back this year for sure and after the first couple of weeks where they came in and got accumulated really quickly we knew we’d be in good shape,” Baird-Torney said. “I thought we’d be a top-eight, top-six team and I didn’t think we’d be here until they were really getting in practice. Then I knew we really had a shot.”

Junior point guard Sophia Grillone scored 15 points, including draining three of 11 Fall Mountain 3-pointers, which set a record for team 3-pointers made in a D3 tournament game.

“We worked so hard over the summer and it translated into the winter obviously and I honestly saw us getting really far,” Grillone said. “Ever since the beginning I knew we could make it far and that’s only because we put in so much energy and effort.”

A year after being eliminated as the 13th seed in the first round, Fall Mountain (17-1) will now play for the championship on Saturday, when it faces off against top-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas (18-0) at Keene State College’s Spaulding Gymnasium.

Fall Mountain attempts to win the program’s first championship since the Wildcats won the first four inaugural Class AA titles from 1970-73 and reached the final again in 1974. Fall Mountain lost three straight D3 title games from 2019-2021.

“We’ve dealt with a lot of adversity the past couple of years, so it’s nice to be in this spot with this success because we earned it and we’re really excited to be in this championship game,” Stewart said. “Nothing was luck for us, we didn’t just stumble into this. We worked hard everyday and it showed.”

Stevens (8-11) trailed 7-6 through the first quarter before Stewart opened the second with a 3-pointer and then converted a steal. Grillone, Stewart and Kelsey Fillion all added 3-pointers to give Fall Mountain a 24-11 halftime lead.

“We can have five shooters and we can shoot from any level and that kind of matches our defensive intensity,” Baird-Torney said. “When we’re coming out pressing and then knocking down 3s, we’re pretty tough.

The Wildcats went scoreless for nearly four minutes while still having a 27-16 lead but then exploded in the final 3:37 of the third quarter. Stewart drained a pair of 3-pointers to begin the run and Abby Jarvis added one herself to conclude a 17-3 run that gave Fall Mountain a 44-19 lead heading into the fourth.

“Our defensive energy was just night and day from the second half and that’s what really sparked our offense and got us going,” Stewart said.

Baird-Torney knows that Saturday’s game against undefeated St. Thomas will be the ultimate challenge for his young group to conquer.

“St Thomas has great size and they can certainly shoot and defend too,” Baird Torney said. “But if we’re moving the ball and they’re not in position, it’s going to be open.”