On Sunday, March 13, the book closed on one of the most prolific periods of Bronxville basketball’s history, as the Broncos fell to a tenacious Friends Academy team 50-46 in the Class B State Regional Finals. But although Bronxville’s seniors fell short in their quest to win the school’s first-ever New York State championship, Broncos head coach Bobby Russo said the effect that his upperclassmen have had on the program has been immeasurable.

Bronxville’s found itself in an immediate hole on Sunday evening as their offensive struggles in the first quarter allowed Friends Academy to start the game on a 12-0 run. According to Russo, the Quakers’ zone defense and physicality proved a unique challenge for the Broncos.

“I think they came out sharper than us and they really punched us in the mouth,” Russo said. “For a lot of the year, that’s what we’ve been able to do against other teams, but we had to figure out a way to come back from that.”

And comeback they did—albeit not right away. After heading into halftime trailing by nine points, the Broncos, led by a 14-point effort from senior guard Sean McGrath, were able to chip away at the lead, eventually drawing even with the Quakers midway though the fourth quarter. But that rally ultimately faltered in the final minutes of the game as missed free-throws and layups dashed Bronxville’s hopes of completing the comeback.

“We played hard like we have all season long,” Russo said. “And you chart things like this; we shot something like 16,000 foul shots as a team this year, but at the end of the day, it was the little things like that and finishing on layups that made the difference.”

With the win, Section VIII champion Friends Academy will move on to the state semifinals on March 19, where they will take on Section IV Seton Catholic. Bronxville (21-5) will look ahead to next year after a transformative season that saw the team capture its first Section I title since 1982 and advance further than any previous club in the program’s history. 

Although the team will graduate a senior class that served as the building block for this latest dominant stretch, Russo said the impact that his upperclassmen had on the program will hopefully be felt for years to come. 

“I had the opportunity to coach this group for a full four years, which is rare—that’s something that generally only happens on the college level,” he said. “We’ve always been thought of as a football and lacrosse school, but these guys have helped change the identity; now people think of us when they think of basketball.”

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