Monday, April 21, 2025
The ultimate goal of Baldwin’s girls’ basketball team was made clear on the opening day of practice Nov. 17 and that was to win the final game of the season.
On Sunday morning at Hudson Valley Community College in upstate Troy, the Bruins turned a dream into reality with a thrilling 50-48 roller coaster victory over Aquinas Institute for the New York State Class AA title. Senior Monique Echols scored the game’s final five points, including the go-ahead layup off a bounce pass from senior Payton Dulin with 1:35 remaining.
“It was a crazy game and I’m super excited we were able to end this on our own terms,” Dulin said. “We’ve won four counties and three Long Islands in my high school career and no celebration has felt like this. It’s the best of the best.”
It’s Baldwin’s first state championship in seven years and third all-time.
“We won two wars this weekend against private school opponents and I’m so proud of this group,” head coach Tom Catapano said. “They’ve etched themselves into the history books among the greatest Baldwin teams. They didn’t crumble under immense pressure.”
Junior Alyssa Polonia carried Baldwin to a 32-23 halftime lead with an incredible 4-for-4 shooting performance from behind the arc as she accounted for half of its offense. She finished with a game-high 18 points. Dulin added 11 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, and Echols had 8 points.
“We’re just overcome with emotion,” said Polonia, who scored 17 points in a 62-55 win over Central Catholic in Saturday morning’s state semifinal. “It doesn’t feel real. There’s going to be ups and downs in a game of this stature and we just kept our focus and had each other’s backs.”
The Bruins (24-2) led Aquinas by as many as a dozen points after Dulin opened the second quarter with a long 3 for a 24-12 advantage. Polonia was automatic from three-point range in the opening quarter and added two other field goals for 16 of the team’s 21 points.
“She was like Steph Curry,” Dulin said of Polonia. “She rose to the moment.”
Baldwin’s lead was 32-23 at halftime, but with senior Maddy O’Toole (15 points) and sophomore Loren Green (15) spearheading the charge the Irish dominated the third quarter. Aquinas outscored the Bruins by a 20-7 margin in the third and O’Toole’s buzzer-beating trey gave it a four-point lead with eight minutes to go.
“Coach always tells us to never get too high or too low,” Echols said. “He just said to stay poised and to go out and win the fourth quarter. We worked so hard and waited years to get this far, we wanted to finish the job.”
Dulin, who had 22 points in the semifinal win, went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the opening minute of the fourth to create a deadlock at 43. Aquinas answered by scoring five of the next seven points to take a 48-45 lead, but senior Samiyah Wright’s basket with 3:38 remaining would be the last points Baldwin would allow.
“They had a great third quarter but we held them to only five points in the fourth,” Catapano said. “In this day and age where everyone is so focused on offense when it comes to sports, we showed that defense still wins championships.”
Also in the semifinal win, senior Toni Smith had 10 points and six rebounds and sophomore Ajeya Nicholas added eight points.
The last time the Bruins won a state crown in March of 2018, current JV head coach and varsity assistant Sarah Pulis was part of its starting five.
“Sarah said winning a state championship is a life-changing experience,” Dulin said. “I can already feel it.”
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