Rye’s Hannah McGovern avoids a Sleepy Hollow double-team and shuffles a pass to Grace Porter.
Rye High Girls’ Basketball
Rye Crushes Sleepy Hollow, Stuns Somers
BY CHRIS URBAN
The Rye Girls’ Basketball team had a regular season to be extremely proud of, but to Amanda Latkany, that was just a prelude. “We have been looking forward to playoffs for the whole year,” she said. “And now that the post season has finally begun, we are ready to give our all in every game. We have many talented players on the team this year. I am excited to see how everything turns out.”
The team had a stellar 17-3 regular season record and secured the No. 1 seed in the Section 1 Class A playoffs. The girls were also League II-D champions and locked up a bye in the playoffs. Natasha Meyer commented that “entering the playoffs as the one-seed is always exciting but when you are with a group of people like our team, playing the sport you love, you can’t hope for anything more.”
The Garnet Girls got off to a quick start against Sleepy Hollow February 21, starting the game on a 7-0 run would result in a staggering 23-4 lead after the first quarter.
Rye and Sleepy Hollow both stepped up their defense as only five points were scored through the first half of the second quarter. After that, Teaghan Flaherty and Ava Greto were strong for the Garnets, fueling the team to an emphatic 39-10 lead over the Lady Horsemen (the time has come to put this moniker out to pasture) 39-10 at halftime.
The pace of play picked up in the third quarter, feeding a Garnets’ strength, as Latkany and Flaherty scored several quick transition buckets. “Our main focus everyday in practice has been to take the post season game by game,” said Flaherty. “We have a lot of potential. It’s a special group and I’m really looking forward to competing for a section title with my squad.”
Just like they had in the first half, Rye continued their excellent play, extending their lead to 66-23 at the end of the third quarter. A number of players came off the bench to contribute down-the-stretch to finish off the game, 77-37.
In the quarterfinal against Somers February 26, the Rye won in buzzer-beater fashion, 61-59, on a heads-up play by Meyer. With three seconds on the clock, Latkany heaved up a shot and, as everyone was looking to see if the shot would go in, Meyer scooped up the rebound and made a game-winning layup as time expired!
The Garnets next play the Harrison Huskies in the semifinals at the Westchester County Center March 5 at 8:15 p.m.
