Peekskill Herald

Peekskill Herald

Peekskill Herald

Red Devils win sub-regional final in last minute

Advance to next round on Friday night
Red+Devils+win+sub-regional+final+in+last+minute

Years from now, Peekskill fans will be talking about Jaden Chavis’ flu game that saw the standout junior leave the bench with 6 minutes on the clock to carry his team to a dramatic win Wednesday night. The Red Devils defeated Binghamton 53-52 and now play Lourdes on Friday at 7 p.m. in the AA State Regional Final at Mt. St. Mary College in Newburgh.

Chavis, who started the game sidelined with the flu, got out of his sweats and entered the contest that was tied. In an account by Kevin Devaney of KDJMedia, who did the play by play from the County Center last week, Devaney tweeted that Chavis came out of a Peekskill timeout looking like he was struggling for energy and took a baseline drive around a screen and made a reverse layup to put Peekskill up by 1.

“During the timeout before the play, Chavis walked down the Peekskill bench and chugged water. I thought for sure he was going to vomit. His cough was as deep as you’ll hear out of a human being. Once the final buzzer sounded, I followed Chavis during the celebration. He was winded,” related Devaney on his Twitter account.

Coach Tyrone Searight getting a congratulatory hug from the coach he played under at PHS, Lou Panzanaro.

Chavis made a reverse layup with 59 seconds to give Peekskill a 51-50 lead. His heroic return from the locker room contributed a basket, a rebound, a block and an assist, all critical in the heart-stopping win.

The key play to win for the Red Devils was the steal of a cross court pass and runaway layup by junior guard Isaiah Crawford in the final seconds. Crawford stepped up in Chavis absence and led the Red Devils with 18 points, followed by Travis Brown and Zeke Jones with 11 each. Marquett Webster scored 7 points and Amir Thames 4, and Chavis scored two.

Legendary Peekskill basketball coach Lou Panzanaro with Schools Superintendent David Mauricio.

Peekskill’s secret weapon was the loud and enthusiastic fan base that traveled to Yorktown. Nearly 700 Red Devil supporters packed the Yorktown gym and brought the energy to a peak down the stretch and throughout the night. 

Navigate Left
Navigate Right
Navigate Left
Navigate Right
About the Contributor
Regina Clarkin
Regina Clarkin, Editor and Publisher
When the Peekskill Herald weekly newspaper ceased publishing in August 2000 it was the first time in the history of the city that there wasn’t a local newspaper.  The award-winning weekly was often referred to as the ‘glue’ of the community. Founded on January 9, 1986 by Regina Clarkin, Kathy Daley and Rich Zahradnik with a $7,000 credit card line, the paper filled the void created when the daily Evening Star was sold to Gannett and moved out of town. Founding publisher Regina Clarkin continued to live in the Peekskill Cortlandt area and turned her attention to other life endeavors.  Through the ensuing 19 years, Clarkin was frequently stopped in town and asked when she would start up the Herald again. In January 2019, Clarkin decided it was less labor intensive to deliver a weekly blog than a print newspaper so she began posting one story a week about life in Peekskill. After a successful crowd funding campaign in 2020, the Herald was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in July of 2021. Peekskill Herald is a digital relative of the former print edition, featuring many of the favorite aspects of the beloved Peekskill Herald such as old pictures, personality profiles and well written stories about newsworthy events. Regina Clarkin is the editor and publisher of the site. Photo by Joe Squillante