Class B Putnam Valley, Class C’s Haldane
Class B Putnam Valley Reaches 5th Final 4 in 6 Years
Class C’s Haldane Ousted in Tourney Final
PUTNAM VALLEY’s 54-44 win over visiting Westlake was tougher than expected. Top-seeded Putnam Valley’s top scorer, Darnel Shillingford, was held to just five first-half points, but the junior forward erupted in the second half and finished with a game-high had 23 points and double digit rebounds for the Tigers, who improved to 17-4, and advanced to its 5th Section 1 Final 4 in six seasons where they were to face No. 4 Blind Brook in last night’s semifinals at the County Center.
Putnam Valley held Westlake (13-9) to 16 points in the first half but led just 21-16 at the half, thanks in part to PV forward TJ Brescia, who scored 10 of his 18 in the second quarter. Tiger F John Millicker hit a big fourth-quarter 3 and finished with five points.
Shillingford, an all-section pick, took over in the second half.
“I told Darnel, ‘I don’t what’s going on, but five points won’t get us to the County Center,'” PV Coach Mike McDonnell said. “He carried us in the second half, just like he has all season, and I can’t say enough about TJ.”
Shillingford, who was a freshman on the last PV squad to reach the finals in 2016, got the message. Knowing all too well the history of the program, Shillingford put the team on his shoulders.
“We started slow, like we did in some earlier games, but we get how it is,” said Shillingford, who played as a sixth man in the sectional final as a freshman in 2016. “We just kept getting after it. We knew if we kept pushing we could get them tired because we’re a well-conditioned team. We can outlast teams.
“This feels great, it’s really an honor,” he added. “When I was a freshman, I had five seniors in front of me, and I really looked up to those kids. I took in what they said, how they played, how they practiced, and when I take the court now it’s in honor of them because they taught me so much. We know that those guys want a championship for this program just as much as we do, so we’re going there playing for them and for ourselves. It’s amazing to be part of this, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. We’ve been playing together with these kids since the third grade, and we watched the older guys play and learned so much from kids like Joey (Spinola), Kevin (Gallagher), Anders (Spittal), Charlie (Pagani) and Harrison (Deegan). Playing with them was a real honor and I feel like they are still a big part of it.”
The semifinal against Blind Brook was a rematch of Putnam Valley’s 47-36 win on Jan. 22. Put Valley’s guard play will need to improve and find its high-water mark if the Tigers stand any chance to win it all; what would be the program’s first championship in three tries, should they survive Blind Brook to face the No.2 Irvington/No.3 Briarcliff winner.
HALDANE’s 63-54 semifinal overtime win over No.3 Tuckahoe will not soon be forgotten, but the neither will the 66-47 loss to top-seeded Hamilton last Saturday at Pace University. With the gold ball on the line, the second-seeded Blue Devils (16-7) shot poorly and met their match.
Liam Irwin’s put-back bucket at the end of regulation against the Tigers tied the game at 51-all and was the shot of the year for the Blue Devils, who saw Irwin, Nick DiPalo and Matt Champlin combine to score 50 of 63 points; DiPalo scoring 19, Champlin adding 18 and Irwin going for 13. DiPalo had 14 points and Champlin added 11 in the lost to Hamilton.
Ray has 33 years experience covering and photographing local sports in Westchester and Putnam counties, including everything from Little League/Travel Baseball to varsity high school prep sports and collegiate coverage. He has been a sports editor at Examiner Media since its inception in 2007.
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