New Rochelle High School came into Sunday’s Class AAA finals with a chance to crown not one, but two Section 1 Champions, as both the boys and girls varsity squads took the court at the Westchester County Center.
Unfortunately for the Huguenots, however, two hard-fought games ended with New Rochelle going home empty handed.
In the day’s first game—a showdown between No. 6 New Rochelle and No. 1 Ketcham, the Huguenots were able to overcome some early foul trouble—for a time—heading into halftime with a one-point lead over the heavily favored Pride. But Ketcham soon played to their pedigree—the team’s only loss to Section 1 competition this year came to eventual Class AA champ Albertus Magnus—opening up a sizable lead in the second half before going on to win 51-44.
The Huguenots Grace Ziogas had 15 points to keep her on pace with Ketcham’s top scorers Jennifer Nardelli and Allison Kaminski, but the Pride’s size proved just too much for New Ro to overcome, especially once the team was forced to play stretches without both center Skye Pressley and point guard Stella Ziogas for extended periods of time due to foul trouble.
“Losing our point guard and our center, that definitely hamstrung us, but we still played hard,” said New Rochelle coach Donald Lucas. “At the end of the day we battled through that, battled through having some girls sick, and Ketcham just had a little bit too much for us.”
New Rochelle’s boys had similar late-game struggles in the Class AAA finals, seeing a nine-point second half lead evaporate against a gritty Mount Vernon team it had beat twice during the regular season. The Knights stormed back thanks to a high-energy press and some inspired play from 5-foot-6 point guard Tavien Taylor, who scored 16 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter to give Mount Vernon a 41-37 victory, earning longtime head coach Bob Cimmino his 20th Gold Ball in the process.
New Rochelle head coach Rasuan Young credited Taylor and the Knights with a tremendous second half performance, noting how hard it is to beat any top team three times in one season. In the semifinals, Young’s Huguenots upset league champ Mamaroneck in similar fashion.
“Right now, our guys are unfortunately experiencing what we did to Mamaroneck in the semifinals, it’s so tough to get that third win,” said Young. “But I give all the credit in the world to my team, especially seniors like Kas Mirza, who put it all on the line today.”
Mirza was stellar for the Huguenots in their biggest game of the year, notching a team-high 20 points.
The Knights will move on to play Section 4 champion Elmira in the Class AAA sub-regional on Wednesday afternoon—after press time—at Yorktown High School.
