Sports
Tappan Zee Boys Basketball Beats Albertus Again (VIDEO)
The Dutchmen defeated the Falcons, 54-41, to remain undefeated.
With less than 40 seconds to go in the game, Tappan Zee’s Billy O’Shea received a pass on the left side, drove into the land and went up for a dunk only to be rejected by the front of the rim.
“I don’t know what wrong, I missed it by a little,” O'Shea said said.
After the game, a friend joked with O’Shea that they would see it on SportsCenter’s “Not Top 10” list later in the week.
O’Shea was able to laugh about the missed dunk, mostly because it was one of the few things that went wrong for him and the Dutchmen Friday night as they remained undefeated with come-from-behind, 54-41, victory at home against the Albertus Magnus Falcons.
Albertus Magnus (11-2) led, 30-22, at the half, but Tappan Zee (14-0) clamped down on defense after the break, giving up just 11 points total in the final two quarters.
“They only had one loss going in, which was us, so we knew they were going to be fighting back hard trying to beat us this time,” O’Shea said.
On Dec. 21, Tappan Zee beat a then-unbeaten Albertus 59-50 in the championship of the Pearl River Boys Basketball Holiday Tournament.
“I don’t think there was much different [from last game],” said Dan Linehan, Tappan Zee’s assistant coach. “We know each other so well, it’s a tough matchup for both of us. We turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and that was the difference.”
The Falcons led, 17-8, after one quarter and opened that up to a 12-point lead early in the second. Trailing 20-9, Tappan Zee score eight unanswered points to close the gap in the second period, but Albertus went on a run late in the quarter to build back up its lead. Tappan Zee’s Patrick Peterson missed a jumper with a few seconds left in the half, and Albertus’ Pat McGuiness pushed the ball passed midcourt and tossed an alley-oop to a wide open Tyler Sayre, who caught the ball in mid air and hit the lay-up right before the buzzer sounded.
“We just started playing together [in the second half]. We weren’t playing together in the first half,” said Peterson about Tappan Zee’s defense. “We had to stop their two main guys, Tyler and Pat. Brian [McLaughlin] locked up Jack Sullivan, which helped us a lot.”
In the first half, McGuinness and Sayre combined for 21 of Albertus’ 30 points. McGuinness scored all seven Falcon points in the third quarter, but didn’t score in the fourth. Sayre didn’t hit a field goal in the second half, connecting on just two free throws in the fourth quarter, and only hit two shots from the floor all game. Peterson was one of many to guard Sayre during the game.
“It’s definitely tough,” Peterson said. “He can jump up into the ceiling.”
The Falcons couldn’t get anything going on offense after the half, hitting just four shots from the field and attempting four free throws.
“Defensively, we picked it up a lot,” O’Shea said. “We let them get open shots in the first half.”
Tappan Zee began chipping away at the eight-point deficit early in the third, starting the quarter off on a 6-0 run. The Dutchmen tied it up at 37 on a McLaughlin jumped with about half a minute to go in the third.
Early in the final quarter, O’Shea got the ball inside, missed a shot from close, but secured his own rebound and went back up with it this time hitting the shot. It was Tappan Zee’s first lead since it went up 4-3 about three minutes into the first quarter.
“We were feeding the ball inside to Billy and Brendan [Donohue] and they were just going to work,” Peterson said about Tappan Zee’s second half offense.
Peterson finished with a game-high 20, followed by O’Shea’s 16, 14 of which came in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Donohue finished with seven and McLaughlin netted six.
For the Falcons, McGuinness led the way with 17, followed by Sayre’s 13 and Arnell Dandridge’s seven.
