Panthers rebound from first loss

By Mike Zummo
Posted 2/2/22

Three days after suffering their first loss of the season, the Wallkill boys’ basketball team needed to rebound.

It didn’t come easy, as they got off to a fast start, and then slowed …

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Panthers rebound from first loss

Posted

Three days after suffering their first loss of the season, the Wallkill boys’ basketball team needed to rebound.

It didn’t come easy, as they got off to a fast start, and then slowed down before finding their momentum in the fourth quarter to pull out a 57-45 Mid Hudson Athletic League Division I win over the FDR Presidents on Friday.

The Panthers, on Jan. 25, were beaten by the Marlboro Iron Dukes, 80-78 in triple overtime.

“It was a tough game against Marlboro, obviously in triple overtime,” said Mat Shea, who led the Panthers with 38 points against Marlboro and then on Friday with 19 points. “We just rallied tonight, and I trust my teammates and they trust me.”

The Panthers got off to a 16-2 start, but the Presidents clawed back into the game, and the game was tied late in the third quarter, and with 4:08 to go in the game, the Presidents had a two-point lead.

Shea tied the game with a strong move in the paint, but after FDR’s Quadik Newton hit 1 of 2 free throws to give the Presidents a 1-point lead.

Shea then gave the Panthers the lead for good with a basket and then Kyle Krebs knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a 4-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Krebs finished with 14 points.

“We tightened up our defense and we started talking on defense more and our shots started falling a little bit more,” Shea said. “We were cold the whole game, but we started to hit our shots a little more in the fourth so that always helps.”