PUTNAM VALLEY—It’s become a bit of an unfortunate trend, but once again the Putnam Valley High boys basketball team lost a pair of tight games. The Tigers (7-11, 3-5) fell behind early and never recovered in a 53-50 loss against Hendrick Hudson on Thursday, and had a 12-point lead turned into a 44- 40 loss the prior Tuesday against Lincoln Hall.

“Every game is close, we just have to learn to win,” coach Ed Wallach said.

Against Hen Hud, the Tigers went into the half trailing 36-27, and were able to battle back to within two points, but did not have enough to take the lead.

“We actually came back and played very well down the stretch,” Wallach said. “We played a tough game in the second, but not good enough. We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and it took us a long time to comeback.”

To turn the game around, the Tigers extended their zone to take away the three from the Sailors and worked the ball down low to Jelanie Bell-Isaac who finished with a team-high 16 points. Zach Coleman added 13.

“He’s [Bell-Isaac] scoring and he’s rebounding very well but he’s still a raw talent,” Wallach said. “He still has a long way to go because he really does have a lot of potential.”

In the loss to Lincoln Hall, the Tigers jumped out to an early lead, but were undone when Lincoln Hall outscored them 19-3 in the fourth quarter.

“We played very well for three quarters,” Wallach said. “They didn’t do anything different, we just couldn’t make the shots and they shot better than us. We had this game under control.”

Led by Bell-Isaac’s 13 points and 10 from Andre Soto, the Tigers outscored Lincoln Hall in each of the first three quarters.

“We just fell apart,” Wallach said. “We only lost the fourth quarter…we couldn’t hit a shot. It was just a very poor played fourth quarter.”

While there are positives to be taken from the losses, with the playoffs up next the Tigers will need to find a way to close out games and get the win.

“I know the potential this team has and I know where they’re gonna go,” Wallach said. “They’re extremely young and they get a pat on the back from me, I tell them how good an effort it was, but we have to stop saying what a good effort, and win a game.”

The Tigers will enter the Class B playoffs as the No. 15 seed and will play at No. 2 Albertus Magnus High on Friday at 8 p.m.

“Albertus is a very good team…they play a big time schedule,” Wallach said. “They’ll be a challenge for us, especially over there.”