After missing a layup, Emma Schwarzbeck dropped her head in frustration and walked a few steps as a Tappan Zee Dutchman took the ball in the other direction.

That’s the kind of morning it was for the Wallkill girls’ basketball team.
The Panthers struggled against Tappan Zee’s swarming defense, had trouble scoring, fell behind, and ultimately saw their season end in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A regional finals with a 71-46 loss to the Section 1 champions on Sunday at Yorktown High School.

“Heartbreak,” Schwarzbeck said. “I feel for the other seniors (Alexis Mesuch and Jordyn Detz) because they won’t be continuing their basketball careers. I hope this wakes up the younger girls because they’re all really young and I hope they never want to feel this feeling again because it’s the worst.”

It ends the Panthers’ dream season, which opened with a loss to the eventual Section 9 Class AA champion Warwick Wildcats, and then saw them blitz through the rest of the season racking up 23 straight wins before Sunday’s game.

The Panthers struggled from the opening tip off against the Dutchmen’s pressure defense and fell behind 34-12 at halftime.

“I don’t know if it was the day and we just couldn’t finish,” Schwarzbeck said. “It just wasn’t our time. They’re a really good team, but I’m proud of everything. Congratulations to them. They deserve it, and they 100 percent earned it. We did not play our best basketball today.”

Wallkill coach A.J. Higby said the Dutchmen had more athletic ability in their top five than nay team the Panthers had played this season.
“That’s a solid team,” Higby said. “The posts play well. The guards play well.

It was the whole shooting match.”
The Panthers have now lost three seniors with a ton of experience. Schwarzbeck has been on the team since she was an eighth grade, while Mesuch and Detz joined the team during their freshmen.

Through that time, they’ve seen it all.

“They’ve put their time in when we weren’t so good, and they just hung in there and they kept working,” Higby said. “They’re such great kids.

Actually, they’re great young ladies at this point. They’re not kids anymore. They’re great young ladies.”

They’re a group of young ladies that may have arrived last year had there been a full season, but the COVID-19 pandemic struck just days after the sectional tournament in March 2020, and then the 2020-21 season returned amid uncertainty and only played for five games during a shortened February season that saw neither sectional nor state playoffs.

But they got their shot and took advantage this year.

“This team meant the world to me,” Schwarzbeck said. “Last one, best one.

I had to play my heart out because I’ve been playing on the varsity program for five years now. I didn’t want it to end. I don’t want it to end, and I just took off my Wallkill uniform for the last time. It was heartbreaking.”

Most of the team will get their uniforms back next year, including Zoe Mesuch, the freshman, who helped propel the Panthers this year. She finished Sunday’s game with 11 points and has three years left.

Schwarzbeck started every game with Alexis Mesuch and Detz started sporadically. The Panthers expect to return starters Emma Spindler and Zoe Mesuch, along with four other players – Alex and Sam Dembinsky, Grace Mesuch and Jazmine Medina – who played significant roles in the Panthers’ success.

“I hope they never want to feel this again because it’s an awful feeling,” Schwarzbeck said. “And I hope they go into next year with the same anger and revenge. They want to take back this title because I think they have the potential to do it. This is just the learning experience this year and it’ll be their time.”