When most sports fans think about the rivalry between Rye and Harrison, the mind immediately travels to the football field, where the two towns have feuded for ages. But as it turns out, the competition might be just as fierce on the basketball court.
On Tuesday night, the Garnets and Huskies squared off for a league basketball game, doing battle on the hardwood in a wild, back-and-forth game that saw Rye edge their hosts, topping the Huskies 52-47.
The Huskies took control early, dazzling fans in the packed gymnasium with some deft shooting to establish a double-digit lead over the visitors in the first half. But Rye w

as able to eliminate some of the mistakes that plagued the team early on, climbed back into contention by halftime and eventually took the lead midway through the third quarter thanks to a big night from Jake Kessner, who finished with a team-high 16 points—11 of which came in the second half.
Kessner noted that the Garnets were a bit sluggish early, but said that thinks eventually started to click for the visitors.
““There’s nothing like this rivalry, Rye vs. Harrison always has a big buildup,” said Kessner. “I think we needed to pick up our energy, I think we came out a little slow to start, but after halftime, we got in the locker room and we knew we needed to pick it up.”
It didn’t help matters initially that the Huskies were red-hot—posting wins over both Eastchester and Newburgh over the last week—and Garnets were without the services of standout guard Carson Miller, who was sidelined with an injury. But Kessner said that Rye is learning to play without the veteran presence in the backcourt. Ben Hudson—who has stepped largely into the minutes vacated by Miller—played well against the Huskies, draining three three-pointers and finishing with 11 points.
“It’s really just next man up, everyone needs to step up,” said Kessner. “Ben has been playing great and getting that experience, which definitely helps us.”
Harrison was led by Matt McCoy, who finished with a game-high 20 points—the majority of which came on chances from behind the arc.
With the loss, Harrison falls to 7-6, while the Garnets improve to 9-4, placing them among the top five teams in Class AA. The two teams will meet again on Feb. 14 as they continue to play through the deep league schedule that befits one of Section 1’s top conferences.
“You can’t take a game off in the league,” said Kessner. “We have to be prepared for that, but it’s a good test for us with playoffs coming up.”
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