If you're the sort who'll be projecting Arkansas-Little Rock and Wofford into the final when you fill out your college tournament brackets, you need not bother attending the upcoming New York City high school finals.
There are no Cinderellas to be found, nor are there any David vs. Goliath stories. If anything, it'll be Goliath vs. his big brother in the CHSAA and PSAL Class AA championship games as two classic rivalries are renewed on Sunday.
Cincinnati recruit
Jermaine Sanders scored 11 points in a 90-second stretch of the third quarter and finished with 30 for the night as
Rice (New York) (19-9) squeaked past Holy Cross 55-52 in the intersectional semifinals Wednesday at St. John's University.
The Raiders will be paired against
Christ the King (Middle Village), the defending state Federation Class AA champion. Rice, which won its sixth Federation crown in 16 seasons in 2009, will be looking to avenge a 67-54 loss to CTK in their Feb. 5 meeting.
The Royals (21-6) escaped the semifinals with a 70-67 victory over St. Raymond on Wednesday as point guard
Corey Edwards hit a big 3-pointer with 31 seconds left and added two key free throws in overtime.
Edwards scored 10 of his 16 points over a stretch starting late in the fourth quarter and extending through OT, and
Omar Calhoun contributed a game-high 23 points.
The PSAL final will be the equivalent of Duke vs. North Carolina as
Lincoln (Brooklyn) and
Boys & Girls (Brooklyn), the defending champ, made an appointment for their third title-game meeting in four years. Lincoln swept their regular-season series this winter.
Precocious freshman guard
Isaiah Whitehead scored four of Lincoln's last six points and ripped down a clutch rebound in the closing moments as Lincoln (28-2) edged Cardozo 56-54 at City College of New York. Senior
Shaquille Stokes scored 18 of his 22 points in the first half for the Railsplitters, who own three Federation championships since 2003.
Boys & Girls advanced by defeating Wings Academy 53-48 with tight fourth-quarter defense and 22 points from
Malik Nichols. The Kangaroos welcomed back guard
Michael Taylor after the Rutgers recruit sat out six games due to academic issues.
The final is Sunday at 1 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.
UPSTATE: IRONDEQUOIT GETS ITS REVENGEIrondequoit (Rochester) (17-5) hadn't won a Section V boys basketball championship since 1945, but there was more recent history working against the Eagles. They had been pounded by a 46-7 score against Rush-Henrietta last fall in a post-sectional qualifier for the state football playoffs and struggled to a split of two regular-season basketball games against the Royal Comets.
When Irondequoit gave up the first 13 points of the game Wednesday at Blue Cross Arena in the qualifier for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA tournament, it looked as though the Eagles were going to end up on the wrong end of the final score against their new No. 1 sports rival.
"It's a great team," 6-foot-8 senior center
Josiah Heath said. "Most of the time, it's a knockout blow."
It turns out it takes more than a great start to put the Eagles on the canvas. Heath piled up 24 points the rest of the way and finished with 17 rebounds to down Rush-Henrietta 68-57.
Irondequoit (17-5) advances to a Saturday night game against Section VI champion
Jamestown for the right to travel to Glens Falls for the state semifinals
It was the second noteworthy rally of the night. In the Class A state qualifier,
Bishop Kearney (Rochester) reeled off the first seven points and went up by 14 later in the quarter but
Aquinas Institute (Rochester) rallied to a 59-54 victory to down the Kings for the third time this season.
Alex Baron led the balanced Little Irish with 15 points, while Phil Valenti scored 12 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and had five assists.
Sophomore center Chinonso Obokoh from Nigeria scored 14 points and grabbed 22 rebounds for the Kings.
"These guys are all about winning," Aquinas coach Mike Grosodonia said. "It's all they care about. They don't care about points and stats. They bought in to it. We talked about it at the first practice: sacrifice. They may not score 20 but they score eight or 10 or 12."
Aquinas plays
East (Buffalo) on Saturday in Rochester in the state tournament opener. A win there puts the Little Irish two victories away from becoming the first school to win the state basketball and football tournaments in the same school year.
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 john.schiano@maxpreps.com.
