Pearl River senior guard Allison Cook collided with teammate Marissa Scognamiglio during Monday's game at Tappan Zee, leaving her with a headache.

Before that, Cook spent most of the contest creating headaches for the Dutchies, making five 3-point shots and piling up a game-high 23 points to lead Pearl River in a 56-53 victory over Tappan Zee.

"Allison has come through with big shots," Pearl River Head Coach Lorraine Moylan said. "She answered any time they came back. When she gets going, it really helps us."

Monday, she helped Pearl River (15-1) avenge its only defeat of the season, a 50-47 loss at home against Tappan Zee (15-2). The Pirates are in great position to take the top seed in the Section 1 Class A playoffs, but still have to play Albertus Magnus at home Wednesday before finishing the regular season with a non-league game at Class AA power Ossining Friday. 

"Oh my gosh, it's an awesome feeling," said senior forward Kerry Sullivan. "It's an awesome feeling. It’s great revenge. Now it's up for grabs."

"It feels awesome because they beat us on our home court and now we come back and beat them on theirs and avenge our only loss of the season against a great team. It feels so great," said Marissa Scognamiglio, who broke her nose in the collision with Cook.

Cook also hit two huge shots in a narrow Pearl River victory at Tappan Zee last season, but she had plenty of help Monday, particularly from the Pirates' defense. Moylan said the primary difference between her team's effort Monday and in the loss to Tappan Zee earlier this season was the play on the defensive end, which consistently disrupted the Dutchies and forced turnovers.

"We couldn't get a decent offensive possession in the half court," Tappan Zee coach Tom Cromer said. "We couldn't execute. That was partly due to their being aggressive with us on defense. Part because we couldn't get to our spots and make good passes."

"Our defense was definitely on today," Pearl River senior Christa Scognamiglio said. "We played really hard. Our pressure was causing them to turn the ball over. That created our offense."

Christa Scognamiglio, the Pirates' all-time leading scorer, was saddled with foul trouble and scored only eight points. Sullivan added 10 and Marissa Scognamiglio had seven.

"Everyone is doing so (well)," Sullivan said. "That game just showed that everyone is bringing something to the table."

Sullivan and senior forward Christy Carty also held their own rebounding against Tappan Zee's much-larger inside tandem of Devona Paul and Val DiMuro.

"It's awesome," Sullivan said. "Everyone always says we are tiny, that me and Christy aren't that tall, so to be able to compete with them and get rebounds is rewarding." 

"They are tenacious," Cromer said. "It's a credit to their coach. They are relentless. They are not going to give up just because they are smaller than us. The girls have to match that intensity. Today, I don't think we did that.

"Defensively, it was not a very good performance by us. Offensively, definitely not a good performance by us."

Pearl River was able to keep Tappan Zee from feeding the ball to Paul and DiMuro inside. Paul finished with 11 points and DiMuro had six. Guard Regina Argenzio turned in another strong performance against the Pirates with a team-high 19 points and Erica Richards added 15.

"She can get to the basket," Moylan said of Argenzio. "She can shoot. She has added to her game. She's having a very good year."

Argenzio scored twice early to give Tappan Zee a 6-4 lead, but Marissa Scognamiglio's 3-point shot put Pearl River up at 7-6. The Pirates did not trail again the rest of the game, though the Dutchies did tie it on more than one occasion.

With the game tied at 26 late in the first half, Cook hit one of her big shots, a three-pointer to give the Pirates a 29-26 edge. They held a 33-31 advantage at the break. 

With 1:50 remaining in the third quarter, Argenzio tied the game at 37-37 with a 3-point shot of her own. After a Marissa Scognamiglio free throw gave Pearl River the lead back, a Cook 3-point shot extended the advantage to four a5 41-37.

That was when DiMuro scored inside and stumbled over Christa Scognamiglio, who had fallen. Scognamiglio was called for her fourth foul and had to sit for a couple of minutes and then play cautiously the rest of the game.

"She fell down," Moylan said when asked about the play. "The kid came underneath her and fell. I don't think it was a fourth foul."

Richards followed her own 3-point shot with two free throws to pull Tappan Zee into a tie one last time at 51-51 with 3:16 remaining in the game, but Sullivan scored to give the Pirates back the lead and Cook hit her fifth free throw on an assist by Christa Scognamiglio with 2:09 remaining.

Tappan Zee had a couple of shots in the final seconds, but finally the Pirates came up with a loose ball and ran down the court to eat up the final seconds and preserve the victory.

"Everyone played awesome," Christa Scognamiglio said. "Except for probbaly myself, no one played down. Kerry and Christy had an amazing game on the boards and on defense. Allison had an amazing shooting game. Missy and Amanda (DeCourcey) handling it. Just an all-around, great-played game."