Sleepy Hollow Seniors Lead Way on Senior Night

Sleepy Hollow had a laundry list of reasons to finish its best regular season in recent memory with a victory.

For one, it was senior night. Another reason?  The game was against local rival Irvington and a win would mean a possible higher seed in the upcoming Section 1 Class A tournament.

Those reasons were more than enough for the Headless Horsemen to play an inspired brand of basketball. Led by 20 points from Jorge Berenguer, Sleepy Hollow won yesterday 64-56 to finish the regular season with a 14-4 record.

The win was an extra meaningful one for seniors Justin Best, a four-year varsity player, Kevin Igwe (three years), Joe Scarpati and Bobby Small (two years each) and Dimitri Ellis and Chris Fahey (one year apiece) who were honored before the game, along with the senior cheerleaders.

"This senior class meant a lot," Sleepy Hollow coach Tony Baxter said. "No matter how long they have played in the program, I tell them all the time that they will be the group that people will remember as the ones that changed the culture, turning it around, as in making this place full. This place was never full. The fact that we are filling gyms, making people excited and playing good basketball, that's a testament to the senior class."

Irvington would've liked nothing better than to give that senior class a loss. In the early going, the team was on its way to doing that, taking a  17-9 lead at the end of the opening quarter. However, the Horesemen outscored Irvington 15-6 in the second quarter to take a 24-23 halftime lead.

Berenguer led Sleepy Hollow by scoring nine points in the second. He also tallied nine third quarter points in a stanza that saw Sleepy Hollow garner 18 of the quarter's 30 points for a 42-35 lead.

"I have just been working hard in practice on following through and they go in," Berenguer said.

The highlight of the third quarter was its last play. Berenguer got fouled, fell down to the ground just inside the foul line, threw the ball up and it went off the glass and through the net, drawing a monster ovation from the hometown fans before finishing the quarter with a made foul shot.

"Jorge has come on the last two games," Baxter said. "He's really coming into his own. He's always had that potential in him, it just taken a little bit to get out of him."

What got Best, who was recently named all-section, going was having the game in the balance in the final quarter. Irvington had rallied back to take a 2 point lead in the fourth minute of the fourth quarter, but Best scored 11 of his 17 points in that stanza to seal the game for Sleepy Hollow.

"That's why it's nice to have senior leaders on the team," Baxter said. "They will drive you crazy at the beginning of the game but when it comes down to the last four minutes, that's who you draw plays for."

Small was another senior that also came up big for Baxter's squad, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the second half.

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