Connecticut Westchester

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — There wasn’t much celebrating when the final buzzer sounded. In fact, if you watched the Lakeland players leave the court at Vassar College on Tuesday night, you’d barely know they’d just won a state tournament game.

“We’re not going to jump and down,” Hornets center Tori Jarosz said. “I think we’re all too exhausted.”

Lakeland’s 44-32 victory over Cornwall in the Class A state regional semifinal was one-sided on the scoreboard throughout but still took a physical toll on the Hornets. Cornwall pressed throughout the game but couldn’t find a rhythm offensively.

“I thought if we could just make shots and we could stay in the game early, we’d have a chance to win it late,” Green Dragons coach Chris Miller said. “That didn’t happen.”

Instead, the Hornets held Cornwall to just nine first-half points as it struggled to find any open looks from the perimeter. Penetration was completely cut off as Jarosz, Lakeland’s versatile 6-foot-4 senior, patrolled the interior.

Jarosz recorded 28 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks as Lakeland advanced to Saturday’s state regional final against the Section 4 champion at SUNY Cortland.

“To our credit, we played great defense tonight and that’s part of the reason we were successful tonight,” said Jarosz, who has signed to play at Vanderbilt. “On offense, once we got in the halfcourt sets and got the ball up the court, that’s when we got our baskets.”

Lakeland led 24-9 at halftime and opened it up early in the third before going up by 20 and into cruise control the rest of the way.

Vicky Kowalski had six points, and Kristin Pappalardo added five and six steals.

“We knew defensively we had to shut down their two big scorers,” Lakeland coach Steve Fallo said. “Tori isn’t 100-percent but she keeps giving us efforts like she did tonight. It doesn’t surprise us. When people get to see athlete that she is, you understand why she’s going to Vanderbilt.”

Lakeland is aiming for its first trip to the state final four in Troy since it won the championship in 2007.

Jarosz, a freshman on that team, is keeping her sights set on that goal.

“We won the section, which is great,” Jarosz said. “But we don’t feel like we’ve won anything yet. We’re not going to be jumping up and down at regional game. When the state championship comes, then we’ll see what happens.”

Email Kevin Devaney Jr. at kdevaney@cablevision.com