March madness

By RICHARD A. ROSS

richardross@riverreporter.com

Nothing can compare with the electric atmosphere of post-season basketball tournaments. This week, the phenomenon known as March Madness began its annual emergence as the Section 9 basketball tournament, which reached its denouement with the finals played in the packed arena of SUNY New Paltz’s stunning new state-of-the-art facility.

Game after game featured frenetic crowds, on-the-court drama, storied wins and crushing defeats and ultimately produced 10 champions that were granted trophies, patches, shirts and a ticket into the dizzying stratosphere of regional play against teams from other parts of the state.

The Section 9 tournament serves as a prelude to those games and to the ultimate final four showdowns, at Glens Falls and Hudson Valley Community College for boys and girls respectively, for the surviving teams in each of the state’s five classes of schools defined by their enrollment.

In the realm of New York State high school sports, nothing is akin to the indescribable whirlwind finish of the basketball season.

Visit www.riverreportersports.com for ongoing stories of March Madness that will conclude with this writer’s annual feature, “Live from Glens Falls.”

Kudos to Tri-Valley for its first-ever Section 9 boys basketball title and to the other Section 9 winners as well.

This writer looks forward to covering a game at the state final four that will feature some of our local heroes.