For the third straight year, the Cooperstown and Tully boys basketball teams will meet in the Section Three Class C-1 tournament.

The seventh seed Redskins (9-11) travel to second seed Tully (16-4) on Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. contest. Cooperstown defeated Tully in the C-1 semifinals last year, and Tully beat Cooperstown two years ago in 1,000-point scorer Shane Connolly's final game.

"We can beat them," said CCS head coach Dave Bertram of Tully after watching tape of them play. "We have a bunch of guys who have been in sectionals before, and played well, and we have the potential to do well. But sectionals is a whole different ballgame, so you never know what's going to happen."

Tully has won five straight games entering sectionals.

Cooperstown completed its regular season with a physical, hard-fought, 45-35 loss to undefeated New York Mills on Saturday afternoon in front of a big home crowd. Mills, the top ranked team in the state in Section Three Class D, completed a perfect 20-0 regular season with the victory.

But it was anything but easy.

The Redskins took a 20-15 lead into halftime when junior guard Zack Sittler beat the second quarter buzzer with a driving lay-up. But Mills scored the first seven points of the second half, and never trailed again, although the game was tied five times in the second half.

CCS junior Jason Conklin hit a three-point shot with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter to tie the score at 26-26, but Mills scored the next six points before Sittler again beat the buzzer with a 10-foot shot to make the score 32-28 after three quarters.

The fourth quarter was extremely physical, and both teams struggled to score. Midway through the period, Sittler converted a lay-up while being fouled, and the three-point play got Cooperstown to within two at 35-33.

But Mills easily broke Cooperstown's press for a lay-up, and the Redskins missed six three-point shots in the final three minutes as Mills ended the game on a 10-2 run for the 45-35 victory.

"We were 0-8 on threes and 3-18 from the field in the fourth quarter," Bertram said. "We're still looking for someone to take over at the end of the game. We need someone to step up."

Herkimer, 19-1, is the top seed in C-1, and will play the winner of the first round game between Little Falls and Pulaski. Herkimer has lost in the C-1 finals the past two seasons, including to Cooperstown by one point last year.