Panas boys best Lakeland
Walter Panas (10-7) entered this year’s Giglio Games at Lakeland High School on Feb. 12 coming off three tough, hard-fought losses to Brewster, Irvington and Peekskill.
One thing that could ease the pain of losing those three games was beating its sister school and that's exactly what Panas did. The Panthers jumped out to a 24-11 first-quarter lead and never looked back in a 78-54 romp against the Hornets.
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“Pretty much the whole season, we have been able to score almost at will,” Panas coach Shawn Sullivan said. “We have a lot of good shooters on the team that came out firing. The whole week, we have been able to knock down a lot of shots.”
Leading the Panthers in knocking down those shots was Bobby Toub. He led the Panas effort with 21 points, including 13 in the opening quarter.
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“Bob has the quickest release,” Sullivan said. “I almost think every time he shoots it that it’s going in. He made six threes last night against Brewster. I don’t know how many he made tonight but he is an unbelievable shooter.”
On the other side of the court, Lakeland (7-9) just could never get untracked, according to Hornets coach Henry Weltman.
“Our defense didn’t work whatsoever,” Weltman said. “We had a triangle and two, and the one guy we were supposed to stop [Toub] scored 13 points in the first quarter so that didn’t work, no defense worked. The bottom line was our defense was terrible and our offense was nothing. Panas came out, out-hustled us, outplayed us, they wanted it more than us. They are a very good ball club. They just came off three very tough, quality losses and they took it out on us.”
Panas will now look to take the momentum it gained by beating the Hornets into its final regular season contest against visiting Hendrick Hudson at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14.
“We have to keep it going Monday night, finish out strong and hopefully carry it into next Friday night [the opening round of the sectionals],” Sullivan said.
Lakeland will look to rebound in its last two regular-season games, both at home, against Somers on Monday, Feb. 14 and Peekskill, Tuesday, Feb. 15. Both games are at 4:30 p.m.
“We said to them it comes down to what they want,” Weltman said. “The bottom line is time is running out, playoffs start this week and the light bulb has to register some time.”
POINT TOTALS
Panas: Bobby Taub (21), Zac Preuss (14), Vaughn Dweck (11), Javier Espinosa (10), Ruben Rosado (9), Matt Stone (4), Cody Welles (3), David Scott (2), Brandon Lee (2), Rashid Barrow (2)
Lakeland: Alex Perlman (14), Matt Tartaglia (14), Tyler Troppman (6), Matt Wright (5), Dan Eremita (4), Brian Miller (4), Savahn Steadman (3), Marcus Lent (2), David Judisky (2)
Veterans lead Hornets
The Lakeland girls squad went into the fourth quarter of its Giglio Games contest trailing visiting Panas 26-25 but with a veteran squad, Hornet coach Steve Fallo was confident that his squad could come out on top.
His veteran squad, led by Courtney Stokes, Sara Oakes and Emily Alicea, outscored Panas 16-7 in the decisive fourth quarter to pull out a 41-33 win to improve to 9-8.
“It came down to the experience that we had on the floor,” Fallo said. “Courtney, Sara and Emily, those are three kids that have been there before. We stayed calm, we knew it was going to be a tight game from start to finish.”
“We just ran an offense better,” Fallo continued. “We hit some big shots, we made foul shots. We stopped them defensively. We executed in the last four minutes and that’s what you have to do to win games like this.”
Panas (3-14) played well for three quarters .
“We were shutting down their main players,” said player Healther Kelly said. “We just played good D and a box and one on them. We played defense the way we wanted too. Defense was the reason why we played well in the first three quarters.”
Unfortunately for Panas, it allowed Lakeland too many trips to the foul line in the final quarter. Lakeland sealed the game by making eight of 12 fouls shots in the last stanza.
“Our fouls added up, we put them on the line and that is where their points came from,” Kelly said.
Panas will end its regular season when it travels to Hendrick Hudson at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14. Lakeland will play its regular-season finale at host Hen Hud at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15.
POINT TOTALS
Panas: Melissa Hanson (6), Rachel Myers (6), Christine Myers (6), Ann Jeszeck (5), Heather Kelly (4), Elizabeth Nesi (4), Shannon Callinan (2)
Lakeland: Courtney Stokes (12), Sara Oakes (10), Taylor Pompilio (6), Kate Weldon (6), Emily Alicea (5), Ellie Dineen-Carey (2)
About the Giglio Games
The games, which started in 1991, are named after Vincent and Terry Giglio. Vincent was a teacher at Lakeland High School for 26 years as well as the Lakeland football coach.
He later became the director of Health, Athletics and Physical Education for the Lakeland School District.
He and his wife, Terry, were killed in an automobile accident on Feb. 18, 1990. The Vincent and Terry Giglio Memorial Scholarship fund was created in their memory and is given to a Lakeland and Panas student every year.
