Teamwork in basketball is essential to a successful season as the Irvington High School varsity girls basketball team has demonstrated in recent years.

“We play totally as a team,” said Coach Gina Maher, now in her 34th season roaming the Bulldogs’ sidelines. “Nobody is thinking about personal numbers.”

With all 11 players making contributions this season, Irvington is once again setting the standard for excellence in the Westchester region by sporting the best record (13-1), its only lost a six-point defeat to Kingston, the top ranked team in the state, in the finals of the Slam Dunk Challenge at the County Center in late December—a game the Bulldogs led most of the contest before running out of steam down the stretch..

“We knew December would be really hard. We were hoping to be where we’re at,” said Maher, who has the most victories of any coach in the history of Section 1. “Our next goal is to win the league championship. Their expectations are very high.”

While playing within a team system, individual players who have excelled for several years will achieve personal milestones. Senior point guard Riley Harrington, who first stepped on to the court for the Bulldogs as an eighth grader December 1, 2005 in a lopsided loss to Ardsley, played in her 100th straight game January 7 against Hastings.

Harrington, who recovered quickly from an MCI injury her freshman year before the season began, has the distinction of playing in more athletic games than any athlete, male or female, in the history of Irvington High School and is the only female in Section 1 to start 100 consecutive contests.

“It’s about tenacity and a little bit of luck that she did not get hurt,” said Maher.

On the receiving end of many of Harrington’s crisp passes for the last four years has been forward Tara Gabelman.

Gabelman, who only started playing basketball in seventh grade, has been an unstoppable force for Irvington, averaging almost 20 points per game and double digits in rebounds. On January 5, the two-time All-Section recipient, who came off the bench her freshman year, scored her 1,000th career point.

She is the only second female Irvington player to reach that plateau and the only female athlete in the school’s history to score 1,000 points and snare more than 500 rebounds.

“She’s a big leader on the court. She’s emerged this year as our real go-to person,” Maher said. “When she’s on the court we’re much more efficient. She brings much more than points. She and the other kids have a great connection.”

For her achievements on and off the court, where she has a 3.9-grade point average, Gabelman received the prestigious Con Edison Athlete of the Week award in early January.

As vital as Harrington and Gabelman, along with senior Lisa Bucci and sophomore Marley Giddens, have been to Irvington’s dominance so far, Maher said other players, like juniors Melissa Tierney and Kelly O’Donnell, sophomore Jaime Gelardi and freshmen Alyssa DiCampli, Alexis Martins and Ryan McMahon, who don’t get headlines, have been equally important in their roles.

Maher also praised senior co-captain Laura Schenkel as “an unselfish leader, a role model and a model student athlete.”

With the post season getting underway in mid-February, Maher is confident the Bulldogs can stand tall as a serious state championship contender.

“We’re maturing quickly, even the young players,” she said. “We know the goals we want to achieve. It’s going to be hard to get there but from last year the girls know what it takes.”