Auburn's Leah Middleton had the ball at the top of the key with about 13 seconds to go in regulation and trailing Cicero-North Syracuse by two.
The all-state guard dribbled to the right wing and then attacked the basket with a floater that just rimmed out, but she would not be denied. She grabbed her own offensive rebound put it back up and got fouled.
"Middleton's ridiculously tough," C-NS coach Rob Siechen said. "She's one of the toughest kids we played all year. I thought we did a great job to cause a tough shot and then somehow she got the rebound. That was a great play by her, a great effort play by her, and then to put it in falling down."
The game headed to overtime, but it was the Northstars who came away with a 67-61 victory in the Section III Class AA semifinals at Onondaga Community College's Allyn Hall.
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Middleton scored 25 of her game-high 48 points in the first half of Saturday's game. In total, she made eight 3s and 14 free throws for the Maroons. The only other Auburn player to score a point was junior Peyton Maneri, who finished with 13 points.
"They battled right to the end and it's a great group of kids," Auburn coach Al Giannone said. "We came up a little short today, obviously, but we had our chances. Give C-NS credit. They played tough as well."
Cicero-North Syracuse was led by a quartet of double-digit scorers. Senior Brianna Weaver finished with 21 points (15 of which came from beyond the arc), junior Kathleen McRobbie-Taru had 16, sophomore Jillian Howell added 12 and senior Maddy Howell chipped in 11 for the Northstars.
The win sends C-NS to its third-straight sectional title game. The Northstars defeated Baldwinsville during the 2019-20 season and in last year's championship game.
"They're super excited," said Siechen, who coached the Northstars a year ago but not in 2020. "Getting to where we got to last year, they had their heart set on getting back there. They know what it takes to work to get there."
Weaver will get the chance to play in her first sectional championship after missing most of last year with an ACL injury.
"It means a lot," she said. "It's my first season back, the first season really on varsity, so it really feels good, and it feels good to win. This is it. We have nothing to lose, so you just put your all into the game and we all just did."
Cicero-North Syracuse (15-7) now advances to the final to face Liverpool who defeated Rome Free Academy in the first semifinal in Allyn Hall.
"We've had two games that haven't really gone our way against Liverpool," Siechen said. "We will just put in the work in the gym to try to find a strategy that's going to work."
That game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday.
