The Wallkill boys’ basketball team avenged its one loss in this COVID-19-shortened season by handing the Marlboro Iron Dukes their first loss of the season with a 57-51 win on the road on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a great team win,” Wallkill coach Hunter Andrews said. “Matching up with them a couple of nights ago, their guards gave us some issues. Defensively, we locked in, Figueroa did a better job on Collin Casey.”
They played the Iron Dukes tight on Wednesday night when they honored their two seniors – Anthony Scarano and Brian Cross – but suffered a 59-54 loss.
Andrews was happy to be able to honor them and get them on the court at all this season.

“They’ve been in the program since middle school,” Andrews said. “They’re a great example of toughness and hard work. Getting them out there was such a pleasure and I’m looking forward to what they can do.”
After the teams entered the half with game tied at 27, the Panthers started pulling away in the second quarter, building a 41-35 lead at the end of the third.
The Iron Dukes cut Wallkill’s lead to four points on a jump shot by Will Logue. However, Wallkill’s Matt Shea, who struggled early and quietly racked up 18 points, scored on a putback and hit a jumper to restore the Panthers’ eight-point lead.
Shea made his biggest contribution on the defensive end on Saturday.
“He’s been so much better on the defensive end,” Andrews said. “He struggled shooting the ball tonight. He’s rebounded so well. He’s been in all the right spots and was able to use his size.”
Kyle Krebs hit a 3-pointer with 4:06 left in the game to give the Panthers a 50-40 lead.
The Iron Dukes wouldn’t go away though as Logue converted a three-point play. And after a layup by Wallkill’s Justin Noelizaire, who scored 15 points, Marlboro’s Alex Grzechowski’s basket started a 6-1 run to cut Wallkill’s lead to 53-51 with 28.8 seconds left.
Shea then hit his two biggest baskets – a pair of free throws with 22.3 seconds left – to put the game out of reach.
“Beating a program like Marlboro is a good way to end the season,” Andrews said. “For guys like Noelizaire, they need to continue to work together this offseason and build on this momentum from the past three or four weeks that we’ve had.”
Marlboro coach Mike Koehler called it a “tough loss against a very good Wallkill team” in a Tweet he posted. He said he was proud of the team’s effort.
The Iron Dukes honored their seniors – Matt Bishop, Ian Leduc, Alex Turnbull, Logue and Grzechowski – before the game.