Niagara Falls is latest unbeaten basketball team to lose in New York

Some members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins reportedly get together each fall for a small celebration, sharing a bottle of champagne to acknowledge the loss by the last remaining undefeated NFL team.

Indeed, next fall will mark 40 years since the National football League's last undefeated season.

We at MaxPreps cannot condone the consumption of alcohol for any occasion associated with high school sports. But we do note that the members of the 1999-2000 Mount Vernon boys basketball team are a little closer to being able to pop open a six pack of diet root beer to celebrate another year of being New York's last large-school unbeaten.

By the way, where did the time go? Ben Gordon was a junior on that 28-0 Mount Vernon squad.

Niagara Falls tumbled on Friday, leaving New York with just two unbeaten schools in the state's largest class – and only one of them can still be unbeaten entering the Federation tournament in Albany at the end of next month.

MaxPreps New York boys basketball Freeman Rankings

Senior A. Keith Louie drove the length of the floor for a layup and the winning points with 20 seconds left as St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute (Buffalo) handed the Wolverines their first loss, 59-58, in a nonleague game to cap the regular season. The Marauders marked senior night by starting five reserves who would go on to help St. Joe's to a 23-19 lead in a fast-paced first quarter. John Murray and Brandon Hickey hit 3-pointers and Louie (nine points) scored on a drive.

"To go out as a senior, on your last game on this court, beating the No. 1 team in western New York, the No. 1 team in the state, is just a great feeling," senior Connor Rehbaum told The Buffalo News.

Niagara Falls had possession with 5.8 seconds to play. St. Joe's had a foul to give and used it with 2.4 to go, then Marcus Feagin had the ball knocked away shortly after the inbounds pass, allowing time to expire.

Junior post player Reggie Agbeko paced St. Joe's with 17 points and 16 rebounds.

That left Poughkeepsie and Christian Brothers Academy (Albany) as the final two unbeatens out of more than 200 Class AA schools scattered across the state. Since only one can be crowned the New York State Public High School Athletic Association champion (CBA is the defending champ) next month in Glens Falls, that number will be cut at least in half by the time the season-ending Federation Tournament arrives.

LEAVING DECISIONS TO CHANCE
The night wasn't a total success for St. Joe's. After the game, the Marauders lost a coin flip to Canisius (Buffalo) to determine the top seed for the Manhattan Cup, which is the postseason tournament for western New York's CHSAA schools.

The NYSPHSAA sectional tournaments started up in some regions over the weekend. It's left to the respective sections to determine the process for seeding teams, and some systems are more elaborate than others.

In the Buffalo area, the Section VI boys and girls committees had to flip coins a combined 13 times to break ties for seeding. The biggest deal was in Class D, where the Sherman, Clymer Central and Panama boys were seeded first though third after the first three criteria – power rating, most league wins and fewest league losses – couldn't untangle the mess.

As arbitrary as it is, we suspect the coin-flip tiebreaker is looking pretty good to one Section V team right about now.

Class B Wellsville was already having a lousy week, having lost Thursday by a 63-46 score to Cuba-Rushford. Though Cuba-Rushford is a very respectable Class C program, it was the Lions' first loss in the series in 11 games and left Wellsville with a 10-8 record.

The following day, the Section V basketball committee met to seed 117 teams into 10 classes for the postseason. The section uses a points system that generally ranks teams without the need for tie-breakers. In fact, it works so well that they don't have a very elaborate way to break ties.

Step 1 is to compare overall records. Step 2 compares winning percentage within the tied teams' respective leagues. For some ungodly reason, though, there's a clause that says that if one of the teams is an independent, then the other school automatically gets the higher spot.

There's exactly one team in this year's tournament not affiliated with a league: Wellsville.

By virtue of that, the Lions lost out to Le Roy, a Livingston County Athletic Association member that also finished 10-8.

So for that reason — and that reason alone — No. 5 Wellsville has to play at No. 4 Le Roy on Friday in the Class B2 quarterfinals.

There's no truth to the rumor that next year's tie-breaker will involve dividing the school's telephone number by its zip code.

SPEAKING OF TOURNAMENTS
State championship season kicks off this weekend with the wrestling tournament in Albany.

The NYSPHSAA wrestling committee released complete brackets for all weight classes in Divisions I and II on Sunday.

On deck next are the Nordic and alpine skiing championships March 1-2 at Whiteface Mountain and Mt. VanHoevenberg in the Lake Placid region.

ON THE FAST TRACK TO ITHACA
Canisius senior Cole Townsend broke a long-standing western New York record in the 3,200 meter run at the state CHSAA Indoor Track Championships at The Armory in New York City.

Townsend clocked 9 minutes, 13.73 seconds to break the mark of 9:15.89 set by Sweet Home's Charlie Kern in 1987 and advance to the state meet March 5 at Cornell University in Ithaca with the third-fastest time in the nation this season.

Kellenberg's James Agati was named male runner of the meet after winning the 1,000 in 2:31.16 and splitting 1:54.5 to anchor the 3,200 relay to third place despite a late fade.

In the girls meet, St. Anthony's rolled up a staggering 78.5 points in no small part due to Olicia Williams, who won the 1,000 in 2:51.77 to set a CHSAA record and move to No. 2 in the U.S. this season. Courtney Finn of Staten Island Notre Dame set the previous mark of 2:53.59 in 1988.

Williams anchored the Friars to victory with a :54.9 split in the 1,600 relay.

John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at johnschiano@maxpreps.com.