Lady Indians Drop Two in Tournament

The Mahopac High girls basketball team lost both games it played in the Matshtik Tournament held last Friday night and Saturday at Mahopac High School.

On Saturday the Indians were defeated by John Jay-Cross River 59-31 in the tournament’s consolation round. They lost to Scarsdale Friday night 61-31.

Sophomore guard Olivia Vetere led the Indians in scoring on Saturday with seven points. Junior guard Sam Nardo led Mahopac the day before with 11 points.

Mahopac coach Jerry Fioretti said that his team played well at the start of the game against John Jay but could not sustain it.

“We played a strong first half but then had trouble,” he said.

The Indians are a very young team this season after graduating five seniors from last year’s team.

Despite an 0-14 record, Fioretti said that his team is still working hard and has not given up.

“We are working hard and developing. I have good kids. They are trying,” he said.

Fioretti said that he was impressed with the play of Nardo in the last two games.

Many of the players on the Mahopac squad had either little or no varsity experience coming into the season and have had to learn as they go along.

“They are learning on the job and that is the hardest part. We have to work hard every game. For the most part they have done that. We have to keep reinforcing that,” Fioretti said.

One of the areas that he felt the team improved in last weekend was getting better looks at the basket.

“With that is coming a little bit of a better shooting percentage,” Fioretti said.

The Indians’ were to play Lakeland on the road on Monday afternoon. They were also scheduled to play Walter Panas at home on Wednesday night. Mahopac’s next game will be away against Brewster tonight (Thursday) at 6:15 p.m.