For the past several years, there have been few on-court rivalries quite as heated as the one between New Rochelle and Scarsdale. 

On Wednesday night, the two teams squared off for the third meeting this year— this time with the season on the season on the line—at the Westchester County Center in the Class AAA semifinals.

The play unfolded as so many of the matchups between the league rivals have done, a bitter, physical struggle decided by big plays down the stretch, though the Huguenots would get the better of this one— winning the season series and topping the Raiders 43-41 to keep their hopes of bringing home a Gold Ball alive. 

Scarsdale’s Jake Sussberg led all scorers with 19, but the Huguenots got 10 from Jacob Wong-Dunn and Malik Gasper, who faced tons of attention from the Raiders’ defense. Justin Cohen chipped in nine.

Gasper said the win came down to New Ro’s comfortability with playing at the County Center and the willingness to dig deep in the game’s biggest spots. 

“For this group it’s our second time playing here this year, our fourth time over all, so I think that helped us in terms of our confidence, we’re kinda used it,” said Gasper. “I just tried to fight through the adversity, they were double and triple-teaming and I knew they were going to bring the pressure.” 

Cohen, a senior, said that the Huguenots’ unselfish play was a big boost, as they were confident that they would get contributions from a number of players who might not normally fill up the stat sheet, with the majority of Raiders’ focus on Gasper. 

“Our coaches talk about it all the time, we need step up when teams are trying to take our big scorers out of the game,” he said. “Everyone played their roles and that’s really beautiful and helped us come away with the win.”

With No. 4 North Rockland earning an upset win over top-seeded Mamaroneck in Wednesday’s nightcap the Huguenots will take on a non-league foe in Saturday’s title game, meaning that the league rivalries that have defined the high school career of New Rochelle’s seniors have come to an end, something Gasper noted with a hint of melancholy. 

“I think that something I’m really going to enjoy reminiscing about when I get older is some of the battles we had against Scarsdale, and—for me, playing against Jake [Sussberg],” said Gasper. “I got to play against this guy seven times and every single time it was a battle. Fighting with him, playing those back-and-forth games, that was great.”