Pearl River Defeats Suffern Despite Late Injury to Houston

It was a battle between two quality teams on Monday, when the Suffern Mounties came to Pearl River to battle the Pirates. The Pirates won 57-47 despite an injury to senior guard Luke Houston late in the fourth. 

Pirate star Luke Houston also added five points in the fourth giving him a 23-point ball game. Houston led his team in scoring but didn’t lead the game. Suffern’s big man Alshula Odongo led the game with 25 but Houston might have matched him if not for a scary injury with just over a minute remaining.

Houston dribbled up the court quickly to break the Mounties’ full-court press and jumped to complete a pass. He came down and twisted his ankle on the landing. Houston was visibly in pain. After being wheeled off the court, Houston returned as the game ended and received a handshake from Suffern head coach George Kunzmann.

“It’s certainly a shame to see a player of his quality go down like that. He may have been the best player on the court tonight,” said Kunzmann.

“Luke’s shown us a high tolerance for pain in the past,” said Pearl River Head Coach Jerry Houston. “He’ll have an x-ray. We are obviously hoping it’s just a sprain. He needs to take care of it, sectionals are drawn Wednesday and we hope to have him back.”

Despite a stout defensive effort by the Mounties, the Pirates were finding the basket easily early on in the first quarter.

The Pirates gained an early lead as they ended the first quarter with double the points of Suffern, working the ball around the outside and making three-pointers while still breaching the interior of the Mounties defense. In the second quarter, the Mounties kept pace with the Pirates and sent the game into half time with Pearl River leading 31-23.

The Mounties clearly were a different team following head coach George Kunzmann’s half time speech. In a two-minute, 7-0 run, to start the second half, the Mounties caught up cutting the lead to a single point, 31-30.

Suffern was able to continue matching the scoring and Pirate Joey Walsh was able to hit two three-pointers to keep it a close game going into the fourth quarter with Pearl River still leading by a score of 43-41.

In the end it was the Pirates defense that got them a victory on Monday night. They were able to play their best in the fourth quarter holding the Mounties to only six points in the quarter.

Suffern was sending Pirates to the line in the fourth to make sure that each point was earned and nothing was given up easy. The Pirates nine of their 11 free throw attempts in the final period.

This was a hard fought game as both teams entered the game well above .500 on the season. The Mounties are now 12-6 after the loss and Pear River is sitting with an impressive 15-3 record on the season.

Both teams have sectionals to look forward to. The match-ups will be drawn Wednesday and games begin Friday.

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