On Feb. 17, Mamaroneck shined in its first postseason contest, as the No. 3-seeded Tigers trounced No. 14 Ossining 74-55 at home to keep their season alive. As the team celebrated its win in front of a raucous home crowd, head coach Tyrone Carver admitted that throughout the Tigers’ inspired regular-season campaign (17-4), the chance to host a game at the Palmer Gymnasium served as one of the team’s main motivations.
“It was really amazing for us to be able to have the support like we did,” Carver said. “And that’s why you play the regular season, for one—or two—home playoff games. That was one of the goals.”
And the Tigers certainly didn’t disappoint.
Led by a terrific performance by junior center Will Sarkozi, who scored a game-high 26 points and nabbed six rebounds, Mamaroneck had little trouble with the upstarts from Ossining, building a 36-26 lead by halftime.
Sarkozi has been integral to the team’s success this season, and has been impressive since returning from an illness that cost him six games earlier in the year.
Jared Bader and Isiah Thomas provided a nice complement to Sarkozi’s work in the paint, with both players adding 12 points of their own.
“[Ossining] really didn’t have an answer for Will in the interior and that was a huge advantage for us,” Carver said. “We weren’t surprised that he had a big game, but we were glad that he had one of his best games of the year.”
Despite winning with relative ease, the Tigers were tested in the first half as Ossining began to heat up from beyond the arc and cut into Mamaroneck’s early lead. But Carver was pleased with the way his squad responded to the challenge as they had clearly regained control of the game in the waning moments of the second quarter.
“We talk a lot about how each game will bring a bunch of adversity and how you have to fight through that,” he said. “We expected Ossining to make that run, and the key thing for us was that we just had to settle down.”
The Tigers will be back in action on Feb. 23 when they host No. 6 Spring Valley in the Class AA quarterfinals. On Saturday, Spring Valley orchestrated a fourth quarter comeback to beat No. 11 Mahopac 64-54.
In the days leading up to the game, Carver said he hopes to iron out some of the mistakes from his team’s win over Ossining.
“There were a few things I didn’t like, mostly clock management and poise,” the coach said. “But it’s always a great feeling to have some issues in a game and still have the chance to work on those in practice.”
