It had been six days since the Pine Bush girls’ team suffered their first loss of the season, a non-league road loss to the Our Lady of Lourdes Warriors.

They had two games last week to get back in the win column. Two wins to get them the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I championship, and the top seed in the Section 9 Class AAA playoffs.

They got both.

They finished the regular season with a 65-48 win over the Kingston Tigers on Thursday at Pine Bush High School. They had beaten the Tigers, 63-51, two days earlier at Kingston High School.

“(These wins are) very big,” said Pine Bush junior forward Ketura Rutty, who led the Bushmen with a game-high 26 points. “We’ve been wanting to make sure we get these two games in our hands. They were rough games. They shouldn’t have been as close as they were.”

It was even more important for the Bushmen to get back on the winning side of the ledger. They opened their season with 14 straight victories before suffering a 67-54 loss to the Our Lady of Lourdes Warriors on Feb. 16. Two wins send them into the sectional tournament with momentum.

“These two games were very important because our seeding meeting (was Thursday at 7 p.m.) so this game depended on where we’re seeded and if we get a bye.”

The wins gave them the top seed in the upcoming tournament and the bye that they coveted. The Bushmen will get the winner of Tuesdays’ game between the fifth-seeded Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders and fourth-seeded Middletown Middies on Thursday at Pine Bush High School.

They have two convincing wins each over both teams.

“We definitely cannot be complacent,” Pine Bush coach Michelle Bouffard said.

“I always say to them, ‘this is the part of the year we’re tired of practice. We’re tired of being in the gym.’ But this is the time when you have to kick it in more than ever, and I think when they have the confidence, they can do anything.”

The Bushmen picked up some confidence last week, even though the Tigers didn’t make it easy, as the Bushmen were clinging to a three-point lead at halftime.

However, they came flying out of the gate in the third quarter, as Letecia Watson scored five straight points, starting 13-0 run, giving the Bushmen a 41-25 lead with 5:26 left in the third quarter.

“At halftime, I said, ‘well, why are we making this hard?’,” Bouffard said. “What got us here is our chemistry, the way we move so go back to that. Just move the ball, don’t force passes that aren’t there.”

The Tigers closed to within seven points after two straight 3-pointers by Kingston’s Asia Lebon with 5:08 and 4:30 remaining in the third quarter.

Immediately after Pine Bush’s Jah-esa Stokes knocked down two free throws, starting a 10-0 run, giving the Bushmen a 62-45 lead with 2:43 to go in the game.

Behind Rutty, Stokes scored 13 points and Watson added 12. Amaya Segarra scored 11. Jasani Frances-Torres led the Tigers with 12 points and Lebon added 11. Ava Ottaviano-Scaturro scored 10.
The two wins last week gave the Bushmen their first step: the division title.

“It’s definitely a good achievement, especially with our history at Pine Bush,” Rutty said. “It was definitely something, but the section is the goal. I’m not too worried about the conference. I’m more worried about section championship and getting to states.”