No. 2 Peekskill and No. 11 Poughkeepsie is one of those rivalries from back in the day that stirs up emotions on both sides.
Thus, when the two were paired up with each other in the Section 1 Class A semifinals on Friday at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, fans were expecting a great finish.
They got it.
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Peekskill, trailing by eight with just two minutes to play, made a frantic comeback attempt but fell just short 56-55.
For the Red Devils, that means the end to a fine season where they won 16 games, their highest win-total in three years. As for Poughkeepsie, it will now move on to the championship game against No. 1-ranked Tappan Zee at 7 p.m. Sunday at the county center.
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"I think as a team we played well this year," Peekskill's Chandler Pierce said. "I don't have any regrets. I love my teammates--especially Kyree Hull, he was the backbone to this team."
The contest was a game of runs that wound up tied on a field goal by Peekskill's Chavis Pigott, making the score 40-40 early in the fourth quarter.
Then Poughkeepsie scored the next eight points of the game.
"We missed some questionable shots and they ran some plays getting into the paint as I recall," Peekskill coach Lou Panzanaro said. "It was 40-40 then they were up 48-40. We just didn't make plays and they did, that is what happened at that time."
Poughkeepsie continued to maintain its eight-point lead up 52-44 before the Red Devils made their run that almost won the game in classic fashion.
Pierce, who led Peekskill with a game-high 21 points, got a rebound off of a Pioneer missed free throw and eventually scored a deuce.
Poughkeepsie's Lateek Anderson followed by making one of two foul shots before Pierce drained a three-pointer to pull Peekskill to within four, 53-49, with 1:13 left in the game.
Poughkeepsie then went to the charity stripe two more times, on each occasion making one of two foul shots to increase its lead to 55-49. Pierce responded with another three to cut Poughkeepsie's six-point lead in half.
D'Andre Smith, who led Poughkeepsie with 16 points, then got fouled and made one of two at the line with 23.6 seconds remaining. Peekskill took possession and that led to a smooth-as-silk Robert Lyles' trey from the right corner that pulled the Red Devils to within one, 56-55 with 8.4 seconds left.
On Poughkeepsie's next possession, Peekskill fouled Jahleel Carter, who missed two free throws. That gave Peekskill a chance to win the game with 6.3 seconds remaining as the Red Devils got the rebound after Carter's second miss.
Peekskill quickly pushed the ball up to the frontcourt, where Hull looked to drive the lane but there he was met by the Poughkeepsie defense.
He then threw to his right in the corner to Ramon Searight, who gave it a good shot but his three-point attempt just missed to end the game.
"They made a great play at the end," Panzanaro said. "Kyree took it right up the floor, gave it to Ramon, they stopped him. If they didn't stop him he would've gone to the basket. We did everything we could do there."
Point Totals
Poughkeepsie
D'Andre Smith (16), Devin Lawrence (15), Jermar Dancy (12), Lateek Anderson (5), Kevin Wright (4), Jahleel Carter (2), Otis Elvy (2)
Peekskill
Chandler Pierce (21), Robert Lyles (8), Musheed Muhammed (8), Tyler Daniel (7), Kyree Hull (5), Chavis Pigott (4), Dan Casey (2)
