Girls basketball: Eva DeChent and Putnam Valley celebrate another Section 1 Class B title
YORKTOWN - New team. New coach.
Same result.
Eva DeCent delivered one heck of an opening salvo and led Putnam Valley to a 52-46 win over Irvington on Saturday in the Section 1 Class B championship game at Yorktown High School.
That makes three titles in three seasons.
“It’s definitely one we had to work for,” Tigers sophomore Nai Torres said. “Everyone was coming for it, especially Irvington. They’re a really good team and they were on us.
“They wanted it. We wanted it, too.”
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Putnam Valley picked up the first sectional title in program history in 2019 and won a regional championship last season when the pandemic abbreviated the playoffs.
“Wow,” DeChent said. “You don’t see three in a row very often so this feels pretty amazing.”
A headliner left with each graduating class and this season opened with a new coach on the sideline in Don Hamlin.
“This was a different team, for sure,” said DeChent. “When the season started I’m not sure we knew where things were going to go. I’m just so thankful we were able to pull everything together.”
All of the biggest wins have come in the last two weeks.
DeChent added to her legacy with a memorable first half that allowed the Tigers to breathe a little easier. She went into the break with 18 points, 10 rebounds and six steals. Putnam Valley headed into the second half with a 30-21 cushion.
“Eva definitely started the game off on a good note,” Torres said. “We got the momentum. We bounced off her energy, played hard defense, went for the ball. She fueled us for the rest of the game.”
Turning point
Irvington had no answer for DeChent early on and was struggling to deal with the defensive pressure applied up top by Amanda Orlando and Torres. Katie LeBuhn hit an open 15-footer to get the Bulldogs started in the second half, but the Tigers responded with an 11-2 run. DeChent only had one point in the third quarter, but her teammates extended the lead.
“I knew we had to get up on them,” DeChent said. “They’re a good team and they always go on runs. We were looking to build a big enough lead that if they did come back we’d be OK. It was nerve-racking at the end, but I knew we could do it no matter what.”
DeChent had plenty of company in the fourth quarter and Irvington climbed back into the game. Alyson Raimondo dropped a pair of 3s before Anders Knapp got a fast-break layup off a LeBuhn block to make it a 44-39 deficit with four minutes to go.
The Tigers came up with two very timely stops and slammed the door with layups from Torres and DeChent.
Player of the game
DeChent, a Rhode Island recruit, finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, eight steals and three blocks. She also went home with the MVP trophy.
By the numbers
No. 5 Putnam Valley (17-7): Torres had 13 points, four rebounds and three assists. ... Orlando had five points and seven rebounds. ... Natalie Mazza had five points and six rebounds. ... Brianna Foody had five points.
No. 2 Irvington (17-6): LeBuhn had 16 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. ... Raimondo had 16 points and five rebounds. ... Anders Knapp had seven points. ... Claire Friedlander had five points and four rebounds.
Quotable
"I was telling the girls every timeout, every dead ball, ‘Get the ball to Eva. She’s on fire. Keep feeding her,’ " Hamlin said. "I rarely do that. We got a way from it a little, but when we got her the ball she did good things with it. She was special today."
Up next
Putnam Valley returns to Yorktown at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to play Section 9 champion Red Hook
Mike Dougherty covers boys soccer, boys lacrosse, girls basketball and golf for The Journal News/lohud.com. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com, or on Twitter @hoopsmbd, @lohudlacrosse, @lohudhoopsmbd and @lohudgolf.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: lohud girls basketball: Putnam Valley defeats Irvington in Class B
