Baldwin boys basketball falls to Tappan Zee in Class AA Southeast Regional final

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS — A ticket to the final four was the prize at stake, but Baldwin was going to need a lot more baskets than this to get to Binghamton.

With three minutes left in the third quarter of Saturday’s Class AA Southeast Regional final at Yorktown High, the Bruins had dented Tappan Zee’s defense for all of 15 points and sat in a 13-point hole.

They finally perked up a bit and made a run, but they turned the basketball over too much down the stretch and never caught up.

The Section I champion Dutchmen won 44-38 behind senior guard Tommy Linehan’s 15 points and the strong defensive work that has defined their 23-2 season.

“Very disappointing,” Baldwin coach Darius Burton said. “I thought this was a winnable game. The better team won today. They played better than us today.”

And while there was sadness on one side, there was jubilation on the other.

“We’re the smallest county in New York by far,” Tappan Zee coach George Gaine said after clinching the Rockland program’s third final four trip, all in the last 16 years, including the 2023 state title run in A. “… This doesn’t happen all the time, and we don’t take it for granted.

“The amount of effort that those boys had to do to keep being together — I think that’s what it came down to; they wanted to stay together.”

The Bruins will keep much of their team together, including Ethan Sainsbury, the junior point guard, who led them with 16 points.

They finished at 18-8 and claimed the program’s fifth straight Nassau title and first Long Island championship since 2022 with many varsity newcomers. More help is coming from Baldwin’s first undefeated JV team.

“We had 10 first-year players, so they got their feet wet this year,” Burton said. “Only five seniors. I’ve got 10 returning. We’ll be back.”

Chase Timberlake won’t be back. The standout senior guard arrived averaging 20.1 points and left frustrated, having scored seven.

“I didn’t play my best,” Timberlake said.

But there was plenty of frustration to go around.

Baldwin was down 38-35 with 1:54 to go. Then the Bruins committed an offensive foul. The Dutchmen, though, turned it over. Then Baldwin turned it over. Xavier Leveille made two free throws for TZ. Then Baldwin turned it over again.

And Linehan made two at the line — 42-35, 24.1 seconds remaining.

“We didn’t come out to play from the start,” Timberlake said.

They did rally, though, when it was 28-15 in the third.

“They turned the pressure up and up and up,” Gaine said.

When Sainsbury nailed a buzzer-beating three to end the quarter, it was down to 32-24.

Sainsbury soon hit another three to cut it to four, then another, slicing it to 36-35 with 2:24 left.

“After I hit the first one to end the quarter, I felt good,” Sainsbury said.

Other than that, the offense generally wasn’t there.

“I think they played good defense, but it was mostly us,” Sainsbury said. “We couldn’t execute.”