Girls Basketball: Red Devils Cruise Past Somers

Before last season, a Peekskill girls basketball squad had never played a postseason game at the Westchester Center in White Plains. How things have changed.

Last year Peekskill earned a trip to the county center by beating visiting Brewster in the quarterfinals. This year No. 1 Peekskill (19-1) earned the right to go to the county center for the second year in a row during the postseason by defeating No. 9 Somers 74-44 in the Section 1 Class A quarterfinals at Peekskill on Feb. 22.

The Red Devils will now play No. 4 Rye (17-3) in the semifinals at 8:15 p.m. Thursday, March 3. Should Peekskill beat Rye, it would play for its first gold ball, given to the sectional champion, in school history in the championship game at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 6.

Last season, Peekskill beat Pearl River in overtime in the semifinals before losing to Lakeland, led by current Vanderbilt player Tori Jarosz, in the championship game.

"That loss motivated us a lot," Garcia said. "We work hard every day. We think about that loss every single time in practice."

Somers stayed with Peekskill in the early going as a basket by Marisa Gardineer cut the Red Devils' lead to three, 8-5.

Peekskill then exploded to score the game's next 14 points to take a 22-5 lead.

"The girls finally woke up a little bit," Peekskill coach Rodney Headley Jr. said. "We hadn't played them before so they were a brand new team to us. We were just feeling our way in the beginning. Once we saw what their weakness was, we exploited it."

Somers' weakness is what most teams have against Peekskill-not being able to handle the Red Devils' intense pressure defense.

Sheridan Taylor started Peekskill's 14-0 run by scoring a basket, getting fouled on the play and then making a free throw. The run was finished by a field goal by Asia Jackson.

Jackson's basket put the Red Devils up 22-5, causing the Tuskers to call time out with 3:09 to go in the opening quarter. Peekskill wound up finishing the quarter up 29-11.

Peekskill continued its domination as it scored 14 of the first 16 points in the second quarter. A free throw by Taylor put the Red Devils up 43-13.

Despite what seemed to be an insurmountable deficit, Somers, starting with a basket by Gardineer, went on a 10-0 run but a 3-pointer with just seconds before halftime by Peekskill's Kiana Letsigner thwarted the Tuskers' momentum. Letsinger's shot put Peekskill up 46-23 at halftime.

"At halftime the speech was know where you are headed and don't let anyone stand in your way," Headley said.

Peekskill's players heeded the advice of their coach, as they put the game away by outscoring Somers 22-8 in the third quarter.

"We just passed it to the open man all the time," Garcia said. "We know we have a lot of different scorers on our team, so we just pass the ball to whoever is open."

POINT TOTALS

Somers-Marisa Gardineer (14), Carolyn Casey (14), Michelle Battipaglia (6), Emma Schurr (2), Tory Scheffel (2), Kerry Silverberg (2), Tara Schurr (2), Jamie Sisca (2)

Peekskill-Asia Jackson (18), Sheridan Taylor (16), Jazmin Garcia (16), Kiana Letsinger (14), Troi Nolan (4), Dottie Bradshaw (2), Tasia Nolan (2), Shonae Draper (2)

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to report the updated times for scheduled games.