Panther girls win tournament

By Mike Zummo
Posted 1/5/22

It’s been a long Holiday Recess for the Wallkill girls’ basketball team, playing three games in four days.

The week culminated with a 59-51 win over Red Hook as the host Panthers won …

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Panther girls win tournament

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It’s been a long Holiday Recess for the Wallkill girls’ basketball team, playing three games in four days.

The week culminated with a 59-51 win over Red Hook as the host Panthers won their Coaches vs. Cancer Holiday Tournament on Thursday night.

“It’s great,” said freshman Zoe Mesuch, who was named tournament Most Valuable Player, after leading the Panthers with 14 points. “I think we all played really well against a really good team.”

The opening round of the tournament was played on Dec. 18 as the Panthers took a road trip earlier in the week for two games in Amsterdam’s Holiday Showcase.

The Panthers routed the Cornwall Dragons in the opening round, 78-32. Mesuch had 14 points in that game as well, but Emma Spindler paced the Panthers with 22 points. Then, on Thursday, she had the task of guarding the Raiders top-player, Marist-bound Morgan Tompkins.

“There’s lots of kids that could have been on that team,” Wallkill coach A.J. Higby said. “If you put together this game and the first game, it’s a crapshoot. Spindler had 22 in the first game, and she takes care of Morgan most of the time. She didn’t score today, but I didn’t ask her to score today.”

Mesuch and Spindler may have gotten the honors for Wallkill, but they were far from the only contributors.
Jazmine Medina scored nine points and Sam Dembinski had seven. Three players – Alexis Mesuch, Alex Dembinski and Grace Mesuch – had six each.

“It’s great because I can rely on anybody and you don’t feel any pressure,” Zoe Mesuch said. “You can just count on your teammates.”

Tompkins scored 22 points in the game to earn all-tournament honors for Red Hook, but most of that damage was done in the first half. She was limited to 7 points in the second as Wallkill took control of the game.

Red Hook’s McKenzie Simmons also was named to the all-tournament team for the Raiders.

“We really wanted to put pressure on them so they would just get tired,” Zoe Mesuch said. “I think our defense worked. We picked up our defense and their shots started to not fall.”

The Panthers, who fell behind by five points in the first quarter, rallied to take a one-point lead at halftime.

The Raiders took the lead back on a putback by Stellah LeGendre, but five straight points by Zoe Mesuch gave them the lead.

The Raiders tied the game at 42 and then at 44 before Grace Mesuch put the Panthers ahead for good with her second 3-point basket of the game.

The Panthers never trailed in the fourth quarter and at one point led by 10 points, 59-49 on a hook shot by Sam Dembinski. That was the last time the Panthers scored, but the defense limited the tiring Raiders, who only played with seven players, showed signs of fatigue.

“In the first half I thought we were tired because we’ve just played those two games in two days,” Higby said.

“I know my kids are tired. They’re ridiculously tired. So, it’s a lot of basketball for a short amount of time.”

The good news is the Panthers won both those holiday showcase games in Amsterdam, beating Troy, 62-41, on Dec. 28 behind 21 points from Zoe Mesuch and 13 from Spindler. The day before Zoe Mesuch scored 17, and Grace Mesuch and Emma Schwarzbeck scored 15 each in a 73-60 win over Duanesburg.

“One of those two games showed how diverse we are,” Higby said. “Grace had five 3s in the first game.

Fantastic. All nine of them can play. That’s what makes it so much easier. You put them all out there; they all do good stuff. And it makes it a lot of fun. Just to get them all in is the problem. But it’s a lot of fun.”