Emma Schwarzbeck did not want to let go of the Mid Hudson Athletic League championship trophy.

It had been a long time coming, and it could have happened last year, but most of the basketball season was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

But in her final shot, the Panthers won their first MHAL title since 2015 with a 74-49 win over the Millbrook Blazers on Thursday night at Wallkill High school.

“This is an amazing feeling because I’ve been in the program for five years now and first-round exits every year,” Schwarzbeck said. “I haven’t played in a MHAL game since I’ve been in the program, so this is an amazing feeling for me right now because it’s so new. I’ve worked so hard for it.”

Winning the MHAL championship isn’t new for the team’s coach, A.J. Higby, who was coached the team to the 2015 championship.

“I’ve had this before,” Higby said. “I’m really happy for my group, who didn’t’ get to do much last year and now they go out and do this because they got robbed. It could very easily have happened last year with this group.”

And everyone contributed, including the Panthers’ top scoring option this year, Zoe Mesuch, who knocked down 6 3-pointers on her way to a game-high 30 points.

“I’m just so happy that we won,” Mesuch said. “Even if I did bad, I would have been happy if we won because that’s how much this team means to me.”

Alex Dembinsky, who along with her twin sister, Sam, celebrated a birthday on Thursday night, scored 13 points on the strength of three-3-pointers, and Schwarzbeck added 12.

Five different Panthers connected from beyond the 3-point arc.

“It’s crazy good that that many players can play and shoot,” Higby said.

“Yes, it is. It doesn’t make sense. How many years do you beg for a shooter, and I’ve got nine of them, so it’s ridiculous.”

It’s been a week of close games for the Panthers as they had to come from behind in the American Conference semifinal on Feb. 21 to beat the Red Hook Raiders, 64-57.

It was their third win over the Raiders this season.

In that game, too, it was Zoe Mesuch and Schwarzbeck again with 20 and 15 points, respectively. Emma Spindler scored 11 and Jazmine Medina added 10.

If it means winning, Schwarzbeck has happily foregone her role as the Panthers’ top scoring threat and passed it along to Mesuch.

“It feels great knowing that I have someone to outlet the ball to that can score like that,” Schwarzbeck said. “It means so much in a game like this for her to be scoring that much. Zoe’s the scorer, I’m the passer and Emma Spindler’s the defender. It’s our big three out there, and it works very well.”

She hopes it keeps working, starting on Saturday in the Section 9 Class A tournament, where the Panthers gained the No. 2 seed and faced the sixth-seeded Saugerties Sawyers. The Panthers have faced Saugerties twice, beaten them both times by an average of 26 points both times.
The Panthers opened the sectional tournament with a 48-45 win over the Sawyers and moved on to host the winner of Monday’s game between No. 6 FDR and No. 3 Goshen.

“This is just the beginning,” Schwarzbeck said. “This is nowhere near what we want to accomplish. We’ve got to keep rolling form here. Keep the energy going and keep the intensity up. We’re going to see much better teams than that after sections if we win that.”