Peekskill Has Too Much Balance for McGrath, JFK
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- If John F. Kennedy H.s. were to beat Peekskill H.S. on Tuesday at the Section I Class B semis, two things were certain: they would have to get off to a good start and senior guard Donnie McGrath would need to be a big factor for the Gaels.
But JFK fell behind 14-0 out of the gate and McGrath ran into early foul trouble as Peekskill advanced to Saturday's championship game with a 64-52 victory at th Westchester County Center.
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The Gaels might have been able to win against the Red Devils with one of the above factors going against it, but the confluence of both spelled doom for JFK.
"We have been playing such good defense in the beginning of games with our full court pressure," said Peekskill Head Coach Lou Panzanaro. "We've been trying to jump on top real fast and put them in a hole and make them fight back."
McGrath finished the game with 27 points, but was called for a pair of early charges that hampered his aggressiveness on the offensive end. And for the Gaels to beat Peekskill, McGrath had to burden the load for 32 minutes.
"Coming out so slow definitely killed us," McGrath reflected. "The first two fouls really changed my whole game a lot, and I knew I couldn't come out of the game."
"So I had to shoot a lot more from the outside instead of driving," McGrath continued. "If I would have gotten one more charge, I would have been done. So I had to stay on the outside more."
Peekskill built the early 14 point cushion, but the Gaels rallied to slice the deficit to 31-22 at the half.
However, the Red Devils came out strong in the second half and stretched the lead to 53-34 on a pair of free throws from senior forward Hilton Armstrong with 6:07 left in the contest.
JFK responded with an 11-2 run to pull the Gaels to within 55-45 with 2:58 left. But that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.
"The big lead they jumped out to in the beginning killed us," McGrath admitted. "They went up 14-0 and we wound up losing by 12, so basically, after that point, we were pretty even with them."
Rashard Turner, the Red Devils' fiery senior leader, paced Peekskill with 15 points. Armstrong, who recently committed to UConn, tallied 14 points and forward Brandon Jackson added 12 for the winners.
Peekskill advanced to Saturday's Secton 1, Class B final against Nyack H.S., which will tip off at 6 p.m. at the Westchester County Center.