Tigers Win on Senior Night, Lose to Peekskill

PUTNAM VALLEY—The Putnam Valley girls basketball team played two league games at home this past weekend. Saturday they got a win over Croton 52-43, Friday they lost to Peekskill 64-34.

“I wasn’t sure how we would do,” said coach Kelly Thompson. “Back to back games are always a challenge.” On the tail end of the back to back games they had to find a way to stay focused on the task at hand, and not get sidetracked by the glow of senior night. “Usually on senior night they start off strong,” said Thompson. “Then it sort of fades out. The emotions are always high early in these types of games.”

Putnam Valley jumped out to a 15-8 lead in the first quarter. Croton didn’t go away and kept the game close. At the end of the third quarter the score was 35-33 in favor of Put Valley. In the fourth quarter the Tigers were able to finish strong and put Croton away. “It was a tough quarter,” said Thompson. “But we stepped up and played hard all the way through and we were able to pull away.”

Rachel Fitzgerald led the team in scoring with 16, Carey Berry had 15 and Dana Tatnell had eight points and added 11 rebounds. The team’s only senior Ashley Marks had seven points, six of them came in the fourth quarter. Haley Clarke led Croton in scoring with 13.

Friday was not as exciting for PV as they lost by 30 points to the top team in their league, Peekskill. The Tigers were outscored 32-17 in both halves and only shot 20% from the field for the entire game. “Peekskill is a very talented team,” said Thompson. “You won’t beat a team that good if you shoot that poorly.”

Tatnell led in scoring with 11 and had seven steals, Fitzgerald had eight points, Berry had seven points and eight rebounds, Marks added six points. Peekskill was led in scoring by Jasmine Garcia with 17 points.

Friday Putnam Valley will play a 6:45 non-league game at Byram Hills.