Girls Basketball: Peekskill Takes Regional Championship

It wasn't the prettiest game  Section 1 champion Peekskill (22-1) played this season, but ultimately, it got the job done in its Region 1 Class A championship contest against Section 4 champ Maine-Endwell (13-8) at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh on March 11.

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Jazmin Garcia, who led the Red Devils with 16 points, sealed the game as she connected on two free throws after making a steal at half-court with just 4.3 seconds remaining. That gave Peekskill a 49-44 triumph and its first girls basketball regional championship and trip to the state final four in school history.

"I can't even express the feelings I have right now," Garcia said. "I am just so happy. I couldn't even put into words how happy I am for the team right now."

The Red Devils will now play for the right to win the first-ever girls basketball state championship in school history. They will play a state semifinal contest at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 18, at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, which is in the Albany area.

"Their morale is so high right now," Peekskill coach Rodney Headley Jr. said. "The younger girls have fallen in place. They have seen how much work these girls have done to get where they are. The veterans on this team have a real work ethic."

Should Peekskill win its semifinal, it would play in the state championship game at the same location the following night, 7 p.m., Saturday, March 19.

The first quarter was a defensive contest as each team only scored three points apiece. Peekskill was able to tie it at the buzzer on a basket by Sheridan Taylor, whose hoop finished off a fast break off a Maine-Endwell miss.

"That's the style of game they play," Headley said. "They are hard-nosed defensive players and they get rebounds. It's the first time we got beat on rebounds in a long time. They play a low-scoring game and hope to be around at the end and they were. But we adapted and prevailed."

Helping Peekskill prevail in the second quarter was Garcia and Tasia Nolan, who scored six points each in that quarter, giving Peekskill a 19-13 halftime lead.

The Red Devils continued to lead by 44-35 with just 2:09 to go in the game on a basket by Asia Jackson.

But Maine-Endwell rallied back to cut the Peekskill lead to one, when it scored nine of the game's next 10 points. The fifth three-pointer in the game by Lauren Kozlowksi, who scored a game-high 25 points, trimmed the Red Devils' lead to 45-44.

Jackson, though, made two free throws to put Peekskill back up by three with seven seconds left before Garcia's two shots at the charity stripe iced the game for the Red Devils.

"I was just thinking I had to make those free throws," Garcia said. "I had to erase the free throws I had missed earlier. I just had to put them through the hoop."

POINT TOTALS

Maine-Endwell-Lauren Kozlowski (25), Victoria Dean (6), Julie Yacovoni (3), Cara Cowley (3), Maria Federowicz (3), Emily Birchall (2), Jamie Burcume (2)

Peekskill-Jazmin Garcia (16), Asia Jackson (12), Tasia Nolan (10), Sheridan Taylor (8), Kiana Letsinger (3)