Gritty Performance by South Gives them the 'W'

The crowd in Pearl River High School was loud and rowdy, ready to spur their Pirates onto a victory.

However, in the midst of the chaos, Clarkstown South never lost their composure and fought tooth-and-nail to take down the Pirates and silence their boisterous fans.

In the beginning, it seemed as though the Vikings would have no answer for Pearl River’s 6-8 big man Kevin Degnan, who scored his team’s first twelve points. However, South forward Kyle Beckmann provided some much-needed offense with three connections from downtown to keep his squad in the game. However, those were Clarkstown’s only points of the opening frame. With Degnan and Beckmann leading the way, the Pirates raced out to a quick 15-9 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

The start of the second period had a much different feel to it than the first did. South started off with a 10-0 run spearheaded by Connor McGuinness’s defense, shooting and passing. The guard accumulated two points, two assists and a steal in a span of about four minutes. McGuinness’s play, coupled with some tight defense on Degnan allowed the Vikings to gain a 21-20 lead with 2:30 remaining in the half. But the Pirates were determined to go into the half on top and did just that with a three-pointer from Jack Byrnes and three made free throws by James Linnane. After 16 minutes of play, Pearl River was in front of Clarsktown South 26-24.

The teams traded baskets—and then misses—as the third quarter got underway. That trend ended when the home team got five quick points to jump ahead by six with under four minutes remaining in the third. That’s when South, spurred on by a barrage of threes, went on another run to go in front as the period concluded. They scored twelve of the final fourteen points in the quarter (McGuinness and fellow guard Joe Zayer accounted for every point, each making a pair of three-pointers) and went into the final frame boasting a 44-41 advantage.

The Vikings began the fourth quarter with consecutive baskets, one a steal and layup by Kevin Martinez and one a jumper by Zayer. That jumper concluded a 17-4 run by South that stretched about five minutes in total. After that shot, Degnan scored back-to-back buckets to pull his team within two, but McGuinness answered with a tough two-point shot to give South a five-point cushion. A Chris Flood three was followed by Zayer knocking down yet another jumper and then a free throw for Pearl River.

At this point, there was 1:21 left and South had the ball with a 52-49 lead. Their ensuing shot was off the mark and the Pirates had possession with a chance to tie the game with a made shot from downtown. They wound up missing that shot, but got the offensive rebound (a theme for the day) and called timeout with 24.1 remaining and then again with 14.9 to go. On the ensuing inbounds pass, Connor McGuinness made the biggest play of the game by stealing the pass! He then got fouled twice, forcing him to go to the free throw line with a chance to ice the game. The player who had put up fifteen points at this juncture sank both shots to give Clarkstown a 54-49 win.

South will face Tappan Zee on 12/7 in their next game.