Sports
Tappan Zee Routs Pearl River Boys Basketball
The Dutchmen won the opening-round game in the Tappan Zee Tip-Off Tournament, 68-33
Sean Wilson cut to the hoop, received a pass and made a tough layup in traffic from the left side of the hoop to give the Pearl River boys basketball team its first points of the night.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, that bucket came with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter of their game Friday night against Tappan Zee, and by that point, the Dutchmen had already started the game off with a 19-0 run.
Pearl River added a three-pointer in the final seconds to bring Tappan Zee’s lead down to 22-5 at the end of one.
“We were all talking in the [locker] room, and we were like, ‘We’ve got to come out like animals. We’ve got to come out like it’s our last game we’ve ever going to play,’” said Tappan Zee center Brendan Donohue. “That’s what we did and we showed that in the first quarter.”
The Dutchmen didn’t let up, winning 68-33 at home in the first round of the Tappan Zee High School Boys & Girls 2011 Basketball Tip-Off Tournament.
“Obviously we shot the ball really well, but I think we played well defensively,” said Tappan Zee coach George Gaine. “That really helped us get going on offense.”
The Dutchmen hit nine three-pointers in the game, whereas the Pirates connected on 10 field goals in all.
“Shooting’s one of those things that can get contagious and obviously we got a couple shots and then people started feeding off one another and it becomes emotional and that’s how these games are usually every year,” Gaine said.
Brian McLaughlin led all scorers with 14 for Tappan Zee, while Patrick Peterson finished with 12 for the Dutchmen, nine of those points coming on a game-high three three-pointers. McLaughlin hit two from beyond the arc, and also went 6-7 from the foul line.
While Tappan Zee hit some open shots, a lot of them also came with Pirate defenders guarding the shooters closely.
“It’s a combination. Some of them were well defended and went down, and that happens sometimes, and others were open,” said Pearl River coach Jerry Houston. “We’ve got to find a better balance of being more consistent guarding the perimeter.”
But it wasn’t just from the outside that Tappan Zee controlled the game. The Dutchmen really muscled their way down low to out-rebound the Pirates by double digits.
“We got pushed around a lot tonight,” Houston said. “Some of that is experience, some of that is they played very, very good tonight and we have to do a better job matching their intensity.”
Perhaps Tappan Zee’s biggest force close to the basket Friday night was Donohue. The senior center hauled in a number of offensive rebounds, including three on the game’s first possession alone.
“It’s just being physical, you’ve got to be physical to get offensive rebounds and that’s what we did tonight,” he said.
Donohue also chipped in 10 points despite sitting for a bit during the middle portion of the game after picking up his third foul a few minutes into the second quarter.
For Pearl River, Joe Clinton led the way with nine points, followed by Sean Wilson with seven and Tom Davis with six.
The four-team tournament concludes Saturday at Tappan Zee, with the Pirates facing Ramapo in the consolation game at 3:30 p.m. and the Dutchmen facing off with Clarkstown South in the championship at 8 p.m.
