Alexandra Mueller just shot and watched. There wasn’t enough time to do anything else with the shot clock ticking down from one.
“The ball just came near me,” Mueller said. “I knew the shot clock was winding down, so I kind of just threw it up there.”
With the score tied, Nia Yancopoulos shoveled a pass to the Hackley sophomore, who put up a 10-foot shot from the left side after Allie Coppola’s shot was blocked by Jacquie Kennedy on the right block. The ball hit off the left side of the rim, then off the right and finally dropped in after the buzzer sounded.
Denis Gostev
Poly Prep's Jacquie Kennedy scored 12 points in a loss to Hackley.
“It felt so good,” Mueller said. “I didn’t think it was going in, so it was even better.”
It was her only two points of the game and they gave top-seeded Hackley a trilling 35-33 win over No. 4 Poly Prep inthe NYSAISAA Class C girls basketball final Sunday at Fieldston in The Bronx.
They trailed nearly the entire game until the final 1:30 as the Blue Devils deliberately slowed the pace. Coppolla scored 12 points and Stefanie Frolo added seven points and 12 rebounds. It is Hackley’s first crown since 2008 and it finished a perfect 23-0.
“We didn’t score a lot,” Hackley coach Shelagh Amann. “But it’s the best two points ever, isn’t it?"
The win had added meaning for the Hornets. They lost in this exact game a year ago to Staten Island Academy. They rolled through their competition this season, including two lopsided wins over Poly and a 68-26 drubbing of No. 4 Rye Country Day in the semifinals, with the hope of getting back. None of that would have meant anything without this win.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my entire life,” Coppola said. … “I feel like we deserve this so much because we worked so hard for this.”
Poly Prep and coach Mike Junsch certainly made them work harder then they expected and had them playing “scared” at times, according to Amann. Junsch and his coaching staff at first thought Mueller’s shot was a shot clock violation, but after checking a hand-held video saw she got it off in time.
The Blue Devils (19-7) tried to drive the game's paced to a halt by starting possessions with 15 seconds on the shot clock and shooting with less than 10.
“Once the kids bought into the game plan of slowing the ball down, I did not think that we weren’t going to win that game,” Junsch said.
Kennedy (12 points) dominated in the paint at times and Friel, who scored eight, handled the pressure Hackley threw at her in the second half. The Blue Devils rebounded from a tough end of the season to win three playoffs games on the road and reach the first finals of Kennedy and Friel’s careers after losing in the semifinals to SIA last season
Jessica Dahldorf knocked down big jumpers, but Poly was dealt a blow to its rebounding when center Anna Lisa Westfield left the game with a knee injury with 3:12 left in the third quarter after landing awkwardly on a layup.
Hackley finally grabbed the lead at 33-32 on a Frolo jumper with 1:30 left. Friel tied the score at 33 by making 1-of-2 free throws with 1:13 remaining. The Blue Devils had two chances to take the lead, but Kennedy traveled and then was blocked on a drop step into the paint. She appeared to have made up for it by getting a piece of Coppolla’s shot with six seconds left and saw it sail under the rim.
“I saw there was only five second on the shot clock,” Kennedy said. “I knew if we held them for five seconds we were good.”
They were just a half second too short and Mueller just quick enough.
“It went up,” Mueller said. “And then back in.”
jstaszewski@nypost.com
Jacquie Kennedy, Alexandra Mueller, Blue Devils, Poly Prep, Hackley, Hackley, Mueller, Allie Coppola’s, Stefanie Frolo
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