On January 10, the Rye boys’ basketball team dropped a hard-fought 66-58 decision at home to Class AA powerhouse Fox Lane.

By Andrew Dapolite

On January 10, the Rye boys’ basketball team dropped a hard-fought 66-58 decision at home to Class AA powerhouse Fox Lane.
After coming off of a rigorous schedule at The Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, the Garnets re-entered their Sectional competition with force and energy – something head coach Chris DiCintio believes will drive his team in the coming weeks.

 

“When we came back we beat Port Chester,” said DiCintio. “And now we play a real heck of a game against not just a AA school, but one of the better AA schools in the Section. From the opening tip to the end of the game – outside of the first three minutes where we went down 10 points – I thought it was nip-and-tuck going back and forth.”

 

Rye exited the first quarter with a four-point lead over the Foxes, but was ultimately unable to contain Dylan Peretz, who scored 10 of Fox Lane’s 21 points in the third quarter. Max Twyman was Rye’s top scorer with 13 points. Kamal Logue and Mike Garofalo each added 12 to the board, and Mike D’Antoni contributed nine with shots primarily from the outside.

 

DiCintio recognized the challenging competition and was pleased as his team failed to relent at any point in the game. “Fox Lane is a great team and Chris Violante is a very good coach. They’re big, they’re strong, and they’re physical. Their shooters can hit shots when they need to on the outside.”

 

With a minute left on the clock, Fox Lane was clinging to a four-point game when a close call closed the door on Rye’s chance for a comeback.
“We had a kid drive the lane, unfortunately he had a charge called against him,” said DiCintio. “It was one of those calls that could have gone either way. If it happened to go our way, it would have been a two-point game and we would have gone to the free-throw line.” The charge instead granted Fox Lane possession with only 45 seconds left.

 

DiCintio admitted, “Yes, at times we could have made a defensive stop here or there, maybe the ball didn’t drop at a certain time, but all in all if you look at the game, the kids hung right in there and executed.”

 

The Garnets face rival Harrison January 13 in the Mamaroneck tournament.

— Photos by Wilson Hunt