Sometimes, things just “click.”
That’s how it went for the Mamaroneck girls basketball team on Friday afternoon, when they turned in what might be their best performance of the year against a surging Rye squad, utilizing a strong start and a masterful finish to top the Garnets 48-36.
Mamaroneck outscored the Garnets 21-11 in the first quarter alone, setting the tone for a day that saw the Tigers play with defensive intensity and offensive selflessness. Soukeyna Tounkara—who led all scorers with 18 points—scored nine in that first quarter, noting that the team just felt dialed in from the opening tip.
“That might be the most points we’ve scored in one quarter this year, and we’ve had some problems starting off slow and having to dig our way out of a hole,” said the junior. “I also think this was the best defense we’ve played this year.”
That defensive effort was not insignificant, especially against a Rye team that came into the game with only one loss on the year—that defeat coming at the hands of AAA powerhouse Albertus Magnus. The Garnets’ star forward Phoebe Greto was held scoreless by Mamaroneck’s front-court tandem of Addison Dorfman and Sonya Prozes, while Dorman also chipped in 16 on the offensive end. Freshman Charlotte Storz paced the Garnets with 16 of her own, but the Tigers clamped down with a tremendous defensive performance in the third quarter, holding Rye to just four points as they managed to increase their lead.
“The fact that we were able to keep our composure after Rye started chipping away is something that’s been hard for us to do in the past,” said Dorfman. “But to come out that strong in the third and fourth quarter, that’s huge for us.”
Dorfman was also honored before the game for becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer. She now was 1,000+ rebounds to go along with 1,000+ points in her career.
At 7-5 on the year, the Tigers will look to close out the regular season with some tough games games—including one against Magnus—but Tounkara said that Friday’s win could be a sign that the team is gelling at the right time.
“This year we’ve had games where we’ll play well, but the we’ll get frazzled when the other team starts to come back and we put ourselves in a hole that we can’t get out of,” said Tounkara. “But we didn’t do that today, we took a deep breath, and we played our game.
“If we continue to play the way we did today, I think we’re going to have a great postseason,” she added.”
