NCN SPORTS BLOG

The Briarcliff girls aren’t just good at soccer apparently: they took down a favored Ossining squad somewhat easily tonight at Scarsdale High. The Bears led most of the game with the exception of a hiccup in the third quarter. Taylor Pescetti (15 points) has an incredible handle and broke down the Ossining full court press relatively easily - along with Maggie Blair who started her first game at PG with the graduation of Angela Pescetti.

Freshman Casey Heyda was dominant in her varsity debut with 15 points and Brianna Reid (member of the state champion soccer team) looked strong in her debut as well. What’s up with Briarcliff’s freshmen class? Could it be the best female freshmen athletes the area has seen since……the 90’s? Who knows. If you do know, leave a comment.

Ossining’s leading scorer from last season Brittany Garrett struggled to get much going as the 6′1″ Shelby Coon really shut her down. To make matters worse, senior guard Kelsey Vallach left the game with an injury and did not return in the fourth.

Aside from the game - I almost forgot how much I love basketball: nothing beats the thrill of being at a live basketball game. It was a nice change of pace from football games where the games last 2 and a half hours and you need to keep track of 14 different things at once. The atmosphere basketball games have is so much more personal in my opinion than football: you can hear every complaint the fans or the coaches have - nothing is a secret.

 From fast breaks, to the Rick Pitino-like Ossining full court press, to Coach Ricci pacing up and down the bench area after a questionable call…you can’t beat live basketball.

 I’ll be checking out Lakeland on Monday at home against Beacon.

 Until then, have a great weekend.

~ Rob