The Wallkill Panthers had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 20.6 points), and they went ahead and made it nine on Tuesday. They snuck past Beacon with a 54-48 win. Given Wallkill's advantage in MaxPreps' New York basketball rankings (they are ranked 38th, while Beacon is ranked 217th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Leading Wallkill to victory were Alex Dembinsky and Zoe Mesuch. Dembinsky almost dropped a double-double on 12 points and nine assists, while Mesuch scored 22 points along with three steals. That makes it four consecutive games in which Mesuch has scored at least a third of Wallkill's points. Another player making a difference was Amy Crowley, who scored seven points along with 11 rebounds.
Wallkill pushed their record up to 12-3 with that win, which was their fifth straight on the road. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 60.8 points per game. As for Beacon, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 22-5.
Wallkill will head out on the road to face off against Saugerties at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Saugerties focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 16 on Tuesday. As for Beacon, they have the luxury of staying home another game and will welcome Liberty at 5:00 p.m. on February 13th. Beacon's defense has only allowed 29.1 points per game this season, so Liberty's offense will have their work cut out for them.
