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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. Ted Repa walked out of the Byram Hills locker room Friday following his teams semifinal loss to Tappan Zee, feeling for his players. Tappan Zee, seeded first, defeated the defending champ and fifth seed, 48-46, in a tightly-contested Section 1 Class A boys' basketball semifinal at the Westchester County Center. Tappan Zee will play sixth-seeded Poughkeepsie in the Class A championship game at 7 p.m. Sunday in the finale of championship week. It was an amazing effort by the team, said Repa, Byram Hills coach. They left it all out on the court. What they have done the last two years if you had told this group when they first started playing varsity that they would have a gold ball and two County Center appearances, I am sure they would have signed up for that in a heartbeat. The Byram Hills Bobcats, who finished with a 14-7 record, were without point guard Jeff Lynch. Lynch, who was instrumental in the Bobcats' return to the County Center, was sidelined with a stress fracture. Repa said Lynch was diagnosed with the injury earlier this week. Byram Hills had two opportunities in the final seconds to take the lead or even the score. Each time, Tappan Zee forced Byram Hills into turnovers. Byram Hills held Tappan Zee's leading scorer, Pat Peterson, to a season-low six points, but Billy OShea poured in a game-high 26 points, including 18 in the first half. OShea put Tappan Zee ahead to stay, 47-46, on a free throw with 14.5 seconds remaining. The Bobcats were playing excellent defense. As the shot clock dipped below five seconds, OShea made a move into the lane and Byram Hills was called for a foul. We were very concerned with OShea, Repa said. They went with a smaller lineup against us. OShea was remarkably efficient and crafty. The first time we played them, he was missing a lot of those shots. The Bobcats trailed throughout, but evened the score at 38-38 to open the fourth quarter on an Andrew Maloney three-pointer. Tappan Zee regained the lead on an OShea hoop and free throw with 5:14 remaining. Brian McLaughlin increased the lead to five points with an offensive follow. Byram Hills had a 5-0 run to tie the score at 46-46, with 50 seconds on the clock. Ryan Golden hit two free throws, then Charlie Murphy scored off of a steal. Maloney led Byram Hills with 14 points and Golden added 13 points.
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