Girls basketball: Tappan Zee accomplishes latest goal with Class A championship
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS - Tappan Zee was ready.
The Dutchmen were well aware of the potential this group possessed and were preparing for this moment even before the season began. If there were any nerves in the early going, the players kept them well hidden.
“I walked in this morning a nervous wreck and they were like, ‘All right, we’ve got a game today,’ ” Tappan Zee coach Riley Chevrier said of her steely-eyed team.
The Dutchmen were in attack mode from the jump and rolled to a 59-40 win over Walter Panas in the Section 1 Class A championship game Sunday at Yorktown High School.
It’s the second title since 2019 for this program.
“That was insane,” Tappan Zee senior Dana Phelan said of the gold ball celebration. “We’ve been working all season for this. We set goals at the beginning of the season and we completed almost every single one. We’re not satisfied with this win, though. We’re going to keep going onto states.”
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Scoreboard: Section 1 tournament results and links
A corner 3 from Kristen Phelan had the Dutchmen up 10-4 four minutes in and Dana Phelan made it 17-6 two minutes later when she pulled up and let go from behind the arc.
The Panthers were rushed by a enveloping defense and couldn’t find a comfort zone.
“We were definitely out of sorts at the beginning,” Panas coach Matt Evangelista said. “We hadn’t seen a crowd before we went to Harrison on Wednesday and this crowd was another level. It’s a big moment for a lot of these girls to get here. This is just different. I was hoping Tappan Zee would be nervous at the beginning, too, but they were not. They came out like a ball of fire and played fantastic.”
It was a 26-8 cushion two minutes into the second quarter when Brooke Comito deposited an offensive rebound.
“That’s a huge part of how we play,” Tappan Zee senior Kellie Lineman said. “We knew today we needed to win the game in the first quarter. The whole game is still stressful, but a good start kind of takes away some of the pressure. We were able to keep that up and not let them creep back in so it was really good, really good.”
Turning point
Cadence Nicholas and Sofia Tavarez stayed aggressive, but no matter how much work they did to cut into the early lead, the Dutchmen were answering each basket. Isabelle Conway and Kathryn Staker came off the bench and hit 3s to make it a 35-15 cushion before halftime.
In past seasons, Tappan Zee had issues with letting up. Now, corrections are made in a hurry.
“That means everything, honestly.” Chevrier said. “Basketball is a game of runs and the other team is going to go on them, so you have to move on and get better faster. You can make mistakes, but you have to move onto the next play. You can’t keep thinking about it and keep digging a hole.”
Player of the game
Dana Phelan hit five times from long range, finishing with 26 points, five rebounds and two assists. She also earned MVP honors.
By the numbers
No. 3 Walter Panas (20-4): Nicholas had 16 points and six rebounds. ... Tavarez finished with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. ... Kelsey Cregan delivered eight points and six rebounds.
No. 1 Tappan Zee (23-1): Comito added 10 points and 10 rebounds. ... Kristen Phelan had seven points, four rebounds and seven assists. ... Linehan contributed six points, four rebounds and two assists. ... Ariana Kupi had four points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
Quotable
"We definitely learned from the one loss," Dana Phelan said. "Our goal was to beat Ursuline once and we did. It would've been nice to win the last one, too, but we realized everyone was out for us in that game. We were the No. 1 team at the time and we found out you can’t take any team lightly, so every game, every playoff game after that loss, we came out with so much fire and intensity just wanting to win."
"None of it was about the future, today was about today," Evangelista said. "I thought we could compete with them and I think we showed the last 2 1/2 quarters we could compete with them. Tappan Zee got off to a great start and showed they were better today for sure. They’re excellent. The first time I said anything about next year was when I told them to watch Tappan Zee get the gold ball because that’s what I want them to do next year."
Up next
The Dutchmen have a bye into the regional final and return to Yorktown on Saturday to play the Section 4 or Section 9 champion.
Mike Dougherty covers boys soccer, boys lacrosse, girls basketball and golf for The Journal News/lohud.com. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com, or on Twitter @hoopsmbd, @lohudlacrosse, @lohudhoopsmbd and @lohudgolf.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Tappan Zee beats Panas Section 1 Class A girls basketball championship
