Many times, sectional semifinal rounds will pit teams from disparate corners of Section 1 against each other with visions of a championship looming in the background. That was not the case on Wednesday, when the Westchester County Center hosted a pair of games between two league foes intimately familiar with one another.
On Feb. 28, New Rochelle’s boys and girls basketball teams both took on their counterparts from nearby Mamaroneck in a double-header of semifinal final showdowns. In the end, the Huguenots would carry the day, topping the Tigers to reach the championships.
In the day’s first game at 3 p.m., the Huguenot girls fended off a strong challenge from an Addison Dorfman-led Tiger team, seeing Mamaroneck cut into New Ro’s big first quarter lead before righting the ship in the third quarter and coming away a with a 51-35 win.
New Rochelle’s Stella Ziogas and Mamaroneck’s Dorfman paced all scorers with 19 points, while the Huguenots’ Brianne Foley chipped in 16 points of her own.
The Huguenots—now 11-11—may have gotten off to a slow start this year, but Foley said the team began to find itself in January and is now playing the type of basketball the players knew they were capable of playing.
“I don’t think we clicked until we really started playing the teams in our league,” she said. “We knew Mamaroneck well, we knew we had to stop [Dorfman] and even though she still had a really good game today, I think we were prepared for what they do.”
In the nightcap, New Rochelle’s boys were able to shake off two regular season losses to the Tigers—who won the league title—with a 52-50 overtime win.
Things looked dire at times in the fourth quarter for the Huguenots, as the Tigers’ high pressure defense forced them to commit seven turnovers and cough up what had been—at one time—a comfortable lead. But Kas Mirza was able to put back a rebound to tie the game with 29 seconds left, and the Huguenots were able to hang on in overtime—although that overtime period came with some last second drama after a technical foul gave Mamaroneck one last chance to tie the game with 2.6 seconds left. Malik Gasper was able to block a Will Plunkett three-pointer to send Huguenot fans home happy.
Gasper had 15 points and 17 rebounds, while Mamaroneck’s Cosmo Hardinson led all scorers with 16 points.
“We weren’t expected to win this game, we lost to this team twice in the regular season, so we knew that getting a win would be shocking,” said Gasper. “This was my first time playing here but it won’t be the last; we’re looking forward to the next one.”
That “next one” will be against Mount Vernon at 2:15 on Sunday.
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