After battling injuries and inconsistency throughout the early part of the season, it finally appears as though things are starting to fall into place for the Tuckahoe boys basketball team. On Jan. 7, the Tigers climbed above .500 for the first time in a month, posting a 60-48 road victory against Rye Neck.

Jack Gentry led all scorers with 25 points, but Tuckahoe also got significant contributions from Jonathan Berger, who served as a presence in the paint and scored 10 points, and John Deane, who scored 14 points and highlighted the strength of Tuckahoe’s perimeter game. Deane drained four of the Tigers’ eight three-point buckets on the night.

First-year head coach Felix Nicodemo said that the reigning Class C Section I champions are finally healthy and are beginning to play to form.

“This is only the second game that we’ve had the entire team together,” Nicodemo said. “One of the things we’ve keyed on to get better was running our zone offense.”

Nicodemo also credited the defense in Tuesday’s win, as Tuckahoe was able to create separation in the second quarter by keying on Rye Neck high-scorer Korey Greenland. Greenland finished with 17 points but was held scoreless in a second quarter that saw the Tigers open up a 10-point lead.

“We try to switch defenses a lot, and we went to a different zone and it ended up being effective,” Nicodemo said. “We’ve said that we want to be a defensive-minded team and that’s what we did here tonight; we focused on the defense, did the little things, and focused on the intensity.”

With the loss, Rye Neck falls to 4-4 on the year, but will look to bounce back on Jan. 10 when they take on league foe Edgemont. Tuckahoe—which beat Yonkers Montessori Academy on Monday night—has now won back-to-back games for the first time this season, but will be in for a stiff test on Friday, when they square off against Class A Eastchester in an annual rivalry game. The Tigers will also play Class A power Byram Hills on Jan. 21 in another game that Nicodemo believes will help prepare his team for a playoff push.

“We know the potential that this team has and our goal has been to get better each game,” he said. “It’s a long season and we have a tough schedule, but I think that schedule is going to make us better game after game, practice after practice.”