Frank Speziale Photo

Pete Mansheffer

Sun Contributor

CORTLAND – Levi Rifanburg all but delivered Unadilla Valley’s second straight Section Four Class C championship on the opening play of the third quarter Saturday afternoon.

The senior’s alley-oop dunk nine seconds into the second half sparked the fifth-seeded Storm to its second consecutive sectional title with a 50-29 victory over the Lansing Bobcats at SUNY Cortland.

Unadilla Valley (19-5) will play Section III champion Cooperstown (22-2), a 61-57 winner over Utica Academy of Science Sunday, in a NYSPHSAA Class C regional championship on Sunday at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton (time to be announced).

Leading 22-13 at intermission, the possession arrow favored Unadilla Valley to start the second half. Coach Matt Osborne said that they had used the alley-oop play coming out of halftime a few times this season, but wasn’t sure whether to try it Saturday as Rifanburg had nursing a hamstring issue recently.

“I thought we needed something to get us going, but I needed to see if Levi’s hamstring was okay. (Levi) said ‘Let’s do it’,” Osborne said.

A solid screen on the baseline freed Rifanburg and Wyatt Grey delivered a perfect pass to the rim. Rifanburg finished it off with a vicious two-handed throw-down that had both Unadilla Valley and Lansing fans cheering with appreciation.

Lansing players however…

“Yeah, that set the tone for the second half - we knew they weren’t going to recover from that,” Rifanburg, who led the Storm with 18 points.