Good morning. 🏀🏒 It’s Friday, Feb. 20. Last year, the Garnet boys and girls basketball teams played a section championship double-header in Westchester County Center. As one of just two schools in the county to send both teams to the title game, Rye’s girls won the section crown, and the boys finished as runner-up.

On Saturday, the two Rye teams tip off the postseason with another double-header, this time on their home court. The No. 3 seed Rye girls host Roosevelt at noon Saturday, followed by the No. 5 seed Rye boys against Nyack at 2:30 p.m.

With wins, both teams will play section quarterfinal games Wednesday, the same day the top-seeded Rye hockey team opens its postseason in the section semifinals.

Let’s go “Between the Lines” for another week of high-stakes postseason action in Rye.

“Between the Lines” is curated by sports editor Chris Marshall.

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Winter Sports Section Tournament Preview

After losing back-to-back games for the first time all season, Rye’s girls basketball team is gearing up for a run at back-to-back section titles.

The Garnets caught many opponents by surprise in 2025, going 17-3 in the regular season to earn the No. 2 seed, then upsetting top-seeded Panas to win the section championship.

With most of the roster returning, the Garnets have been one of the section title favorites all season. The team had just two losses, both against Class AAA opponents, before falling to Ossining twice in the past 10 days to land the No. 3 seed with a record of 16-4.

The Garnets’ playoff run tips off Saturday at home against No. 14 Roosevelt (10-5), a lower-level Class AA “Developmental League” team. Win a win, they’ll host a quarterfinal matchup Wednesday against either No. 6 Suffern (11-9) or No. 11 Harrison (7-13), with a return trip to Westchester County Center on the line.

Rye didn’t face Roosevelt or Suffern this year, but did beat Harrison twice in December, by 17 and 25, on the way to a 12-0 start before dropping four of the final eight games.

“I think last year was different because we weren’t supposed to win it, and then we did,” said Rye coach Margo Hackett, “and then this year, I do feel like they’re feeling some sort of pressure, but good pressure.”

If Rye makes it back to the County Center for the section semifinals, there’s a good chance it will be against No. 2 seed Ossining (14-6) for the third time this year. One reason for optimism that the Garnets can get there, and possibly avenge their back-to-back losses to the Lions, is the return of starting senior guard Annie Toulouse, who missed the final three regular-season games with an injury.

The first round of the Section 1 Class AA boys basketball tournament also tips off Saturday, with fifth-seeded Rye (15-5) hosting No. 12 Nyack (8-12). The Garnets beat the RedHawks 52-42 on Feb. 2.

All year long, the Garnets inched their way up the Class AA ladder, all the while looking up at the top four teams: No. 1 Suffern, No. 2 Yorktown, No. 3 Clarkstown North, and No. 4 Horace Greeley.

Were the Garnets to have one more week of regular-season games, those rankings may have been shuffled. Rye won six games in the first 11 days of February, including a 21-point victory over Clarkstown North, before a 68-64 overtime loss at Iona Prep in the finale.

Greeley’s head-to-head win way back on Dec. 18 helped the Quakers edge out Rye for the No. 4 seed. In the likely event the two teams advance to the quarterfinals, the game will be played Wednesday in Chappaqua.

Greeley – and the entirety of Section 1 – know Rye is a completely different team than the one that started the season 1-2 two months ago.

Weather Report: Check out the weekend weather forecast for Rye here.

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Performers of the Week: Finn & Ryan Draddy

🏒 Congrats to Finn and Ryan Draddy — winners of the Sportech Performer of the Week.

In January 2025, the Rye hockey team beat Suffern for the first time in 32 years. Last Friday, the Garnets topped the Mounties for the third straight time in 13 months, scoring three third-period goals for a 5-4 road win.

After falling behind 2-0, senior Ryan Draddy and sophomore Finn Draddy scored second-period goals to pull Rye even, then Finn scored again in the third period to give the Garnets (15-2-3) their first lead.

The week before, Finn assisted the final goal in Rye’s 4-2 win against Suffern, on senior night for Ryan and six other Garnets in the class of 2026.

The late-season sweep of the two-time defending Division 1 state champions pushed the Garnets’ unbeaten streak to seven games and earned them the top seed and a bye in the Section 1 Division 2 playoffs.

Rye will host the winner of No. 4 Pawling (11-8-1) and No. 5 Carmel (4-12-2) in the section semifinals Wednesday at Playland. Rye beat Pawling 7-1 on Jan. 28, the first of six straight wins.

Few teams in the state, if any, are hotter than the Garnets, who beat Rye Country Day 6-5 in overtime Thursday, thanks to a game-winner by sophomore Colin Nigro.

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