Mahopac Indians Defeat Ketcham, Lose to Lakeland

The Mahopac High boys’ basketball team split two non-league games in the Matshtik Tournament held at Mahopac High School on Friday night and Saturday.

The Indians lost a non-league game to Lakeland on Saturday 77-68 after defeating Roy C. Ketcham 56-43 on Friday night.

After last weekend, Mahopac’s overall record stands at 5-8. Their record is 2-4 in League C.

Against Lakeland, junior guard Ryan Wagner and junior forward T.J. Foley led Mahopac in scoring with 24 points each.

Indians coach Kevin Downes thought that his team played well overall but should have done more to hold Lakeland to fewer points.

“I thought we had our chances. I thought we needed to play a little better defensively,” he said, adding that it is hard to win high school basketball games if the opponents scores in the 70s.

The Indians’ faced a pretty big deficit in the game but could never get closer than eight points down.

Downes pointed out that this was the fourth time in the last few years that his team has played Lakeland.

“Every game has been a good game,” he said.

The coach was very impressed with Foley’s play in this game. The junior has been a key contributor for the Indians all season.

“I thought T.J. played very well. It was probably his best game of the season,” Downes said.

In Friday’s 56-43 victory over Ketcham, Wagner led Mahopac with 14 points and junior guard Kevin Mallon contributed nine points.

Senior center Eric LoPata led in rebounds with nine while junior guard Kevin Mallon had five.

Downes said that getting off to a good start was key to his team’s success.

“We got off to a pretty fast start. I thought we shot the ball pretty well. I just thought we did what we needed to do. I thought it was really a good team effort,” he said.