Junior forward Matt Reilly dropped 21 points—including the game-winning bucket with eight seconds remaining—to lift the Mahopac varsity boys basketball team to a 51-50 victory Saturday in a game played at Lakeland High School.
Reilly also grabbed 10 rebounds, with senior guard Drew LaRue adding nine points, and junior Drew Lichtenberger adding five.
The Wolf Pac trailed by nine entering the fourth quarter before claiming the win with a 15–5 run down the stretch.
“Holding Lakeland to five points in the fourth, after being down nine, was huge for us,“ Mahopac coach Matt Calabro said. “We switched up our defense and dug in. It was good to see them respond in the fourth.
“We got some big buckets from Matt at the end,” Calabro added of Reilly. “Lichtenberger gave us some big buckets as well, and our defense was pretty impressive. It was a gutty win.”
Mahopac opened its season the prior Thursday at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, and the Pac played a strong first half, before dropping a 64–47 decision.
The Quakers went on a 22–10 fourth-quarter run to seal the victory.
Drew LaRue led the Pac with 10 points, Dedvukaj added eight points and six rebounds, Reilly had six points, nine rebounds and five assists, Lichtenberger had eight points, and Ryan LaRue added six.
“I thought we got a little too loose in the fourth quarter,“ Calabro said. “We weren’t as together defensively. One of their kids got going for them, and we struggled to score.
“Overall, I was happy with our play,“ the coach added. “This is a pretty young group, and we were physical. It was back-and-forth through the first three quarters, it just got away from us in the fourth.”
This year’s team returns just four players from last season’s 18–3 team that suffered a stunning first-round playoff loss to Brewster. “You can’t really ever get over something like that,” Calabro said of the devastating loss that followed the best regular season in school history. “We’re still upset about it, but that’s high school sports. You keep it in your head as motivation, you have to learn from it; you can’t hide from it. We really had a great year.”
Reilly, senior Drew LaRue, Lichtenburger, and senior Ronan Hunter are the four returning players from last year’s team. Eight new players join the squad, and Calabro said the goal is growth and improvement.
“I’ve been impressed with all 12 of our players so far,” he said. “We have four sophomores (Ryan LaRue, Dedvukaj, Sal Garufi, and Justin Beberman), and two juniors (Lichtenburger and Reilly) in our rotation, and Lichtenberger and Reilly are the only two with any experience from last year.
“We’re looking for a lot of growth,” the coach added. “We’ll be a different team a month from now, and we’ll continue to grow, and compete. I think we can get to the playoffs, and continue to get better by the end of the year.”
Senior Dean Ulaj, juniors RJ Grabeklis and Mozel Holmes, and soph Dylan Bello are the remaining newcomers to this year’s squad.
Mahopac is set to host its own holiday tournament on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, with games at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. each day.
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