“My boys were primed last night and they carried out the defensive game plan very well,” Clinchy added. “They are that good, and next year they might be even better with the talent that they return. “I said of Byram Hills, that with their size, talent, and outstanding coach, they could win the state championship should they beat us,” Valhalla Coach Rich Clinchy said. Valhalla advanced to the opening round of the NYSPHSAA tournament to face Section 9 champion, Burke Catholic, at 6:30 p.m. It feels amazing, words can’t explain how happy we are.” We all were on a mission and we finally bought the gold ball home after 14 years. Defensively and offensively, we just wanted to run them out of the gym and we wanted to give them no chance of getting back into the game. Julian was playing great defense and hit threes, and dishing. “Chris played amazing defense,” Butcher said, “and Devan was in the threes zone. Point G Devan Cooper (15 points) and G Julian Amarosa (16 points) combined for 31 pivotal points to make the All-Tournament team while Chris Purchia dropped another nine and shadowed Bobcat All-Section hotshot Tyson Repa. “The last time we played them I got in foul trouble and obviously I didn’t play my best, but tonight everyone stepped up big time.” “The game plan was just to play faster and leave everything we have on the court,” said Butcher. The senior played, perhaps, his finest all-around game of the season, going for 20 points, eight boards and nine steals. Tournament MVP Basiaka Butcher made sure of that. Valhalla was back at the County Center for the second time since a 2020 loss to Hastings in the finals, and the Vikings wasted little time in erasing those painful memories. Opposites do attract, and this sectional final saw a whimsical Valhalla squad that likes to run up and down the court against a methodical Byram Hills club that prefers discipline and half-court sets. SOMERS stood in line for yet another Examiner-area gold ball moment Sunday afternoon, but the state-ranked (No.11) Tuskers were simply torched in every aspect of basketball in a 39-15 (not a misprint!) setback to state-ranked (No.4) Tappan Zee, thus denying Somers its first and only gold ball since 1992. State-ranked (No.5) Class B VALHALLA would be next in line for the gold ball in the finale of Saturday’s quadruple-header, the top-seeded Vikings (23-1) going scorched-earth on third-seeded and state-ranked (No.16) BYRAM HILLS in a 65-48 triumph, securing their first gold ball since 2009, sixth overall. When the gold ball were handed out at the Section 1 boys’ and girls’ basketball championships over the weekend, Class C HALDANE High was first in line, taking a 63-53 win over rival Tuckahoe Saturday afternoon at the Westchester County Center, winning its first sectional title since 2016 the year of an unprecedented three-peat for the state-ranked (No.13) Blue Devils (18-4). By Ray Gallagher, Examiner Sports Editor basketball was at its apex last week with six boys’ teams reppin’ at the Section 1 Final 4 at the Mecca – the Westchester County Center.

Valhalla hills highest honor