"I didn't think in 100 years we'd ever go a quarter without being able to score a basket," Red Rams coach Bob McKenney said Saturday night following an 0-for-21 shooting streak while Nichols went on a 16-0 blitz over the last eight minutes and beat J-D 65-43 for the Federation Class A basketball championship.
Jamesville-DeWitt, top-ranked all season and making its third straight appearance in the final, had been New York’s last unbeaten squad, having turned back 25 straight opponents. One of those victories came Jan. 29 by a score of 71-66 against Nichols (24-7).
That game was tacked onto the schedule as an afterthought. Nichols already had a trip down I-90 booked for a tournament in Albany, and the Vikings had an opening on the schedule because they played one less game than expected over the holidays at the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
What Nichols did not have that night, however, was guard Ron Canestro. The 6-foot senior had broken a finger early in the month, leading him to miss 11 games – a stretch during which Nichols suffered close losses to Monsignor Martin Association rivals Bishop Timon and Canisius three days apart by a combined five points.
Throw in the close call in the first game with J-D, and it’s not a stretch to imagine Nichols sporting a gaudier final record as the players posed for pictures and accepted congratulations on the floor at the Glens Falls Civic Center. Canestro scored 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting – perfect on six attempts from inside the arc – and added five assists in the title game.
"We didn’t play well the first few games without Ron," senior center Will Regan said. "The games we lost by one and four we were winning by 20 the next time we played them. Once we realized we could play well and we could get better without him, it was easier to see what could happen from there."
The vision for moving forward depended in large part on Regan, the 6-foot-8 senior who will continue his career next season at the University of Virginia. He was already the proverbial marked man coming into the season because of his size and credentials (being ACC-bound from the same school that produced Christian Laettner didn’t help), and the attention became even more intense.
"The biggest thing was our league," he said. "Playing the same team twice each year and then again in the playoffs, they know you and really battle."
Regan continued to do his part, and others including sophomore forward Stan Wier and senior guard Andrew MacKinnon became increasingly reliable. And then Canestro resurfaced for the stretch run, and Nichols simply had too many weapons for opponents to handle.
On Friday, Wier hit six 3-pointers to finish with 31 points and Regan put up 28 points and 19 rebounds in an 85-66 victory over defending champion Long Island Lutheran. Regan hit 12 of 18 shots in that effort to boost has career total to 1,987 points entering the final.
And though he shot just 6-for-15 in the final, Regan did pull down 12 rebounds against 6-9 sophomore DaJuan Coleman, who had ripped down 31 rebounds in J-D’s semifinal win, and finished with 21 points in the game and 2,008 for his scholastic career.
"It's a great way to end a career — it's hard to put it into words to finish it off like that," he said. "I couldn't ask for anything more. To end it like this, and to be with a great group of guys and a great team, to be able to battle with them every day in practice for five months, and most of the guys for four years, it means a lot to win it with a group of friends that I'll always have."
Said Nichols coach Greg Plumb: "He’s one of those guys everyone turns to for everything, the guy players model themselves after. He’s done it right, start to finish. It makes my job so much easier to have him, to have a guy with such strong character."
Christ the King scores an unprecedented double
With approximately 1,000 high schools in the state, what Christ the King had the opportunity to do on the final day of the season was almost unfathomable. Though many schools have qualified their boys and girls teams for the season-ending championship weekend, CTK positioned itself to become the first team to sweep the hardware.
The dream became reality when Anthony Hemingway’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rattled out, preserving the Royals’ 52-49 win over Boys & Girls in the boys Class AA championship game to conclude the tournament.
Two free throws by Omar Calhoun with 0:50 to play gave CTK a 50-48 lead, and T.J. Curry made two more 38 seconds later for a 52-49 lead. The Kangaroos’ Antoine Slaughter tried driving the length of the court for a layup but the ball would not go down.
Dominykas Milka missed two free throws at the other end of the court, and Leroy Isler outletted the rebound to Hemingway near the left baseline, collapsing in disappointment when the ball rattled out.
"Everyone played a big role in this win," Calhoun said. "We have great character."
Calhoun made all eight of his free throws, scored 20 points and handed out two assists to earn game MVP honors. Michael Taylor topped Boys & Girls with 18 points.
Earlier, Christ the King’s girls won their 15th Federation championship by wearing down Sachem East 56-47 after the Flaming Arrows played them tight for close to 30 minutes. Senior center Ariel Edwards scored 23 points on 9-for-14 shooting on grabbed 15 rebounds.
Junior guard Bria Smith added 19 points for CTK, which had defeated New York City nemesis Murry Bergtruam 73-67 one day earlier as sophomore guard Rayne Connell (11 points) connected on a perimeter jumper from the left side to put CTK up 63-57 with 2:15 left. Smith paced CTK with 31 points, making 17 of 22 free throws.
In the final, Kristen Doherty paced Sachem East with 29 points.
More Federation finals
* Collegiate made it three straight Class B championships by pounding out a 61-41 win over Queens High School of Teaching, which had chalked up 31 straight victories. Will Pagano scored a game-high 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting, and Yale-bound Will Bartlett, tournament MVP for the second straight year, followed with 15 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
* The Averill Park girls opened the fourth quarter with an 11-0 blitz and defeated St. Anthony's 60-48 in Class A for Section II's first Federation championship in nine years. With the lead just 33-32 to open the fourth quarter, senior guard Michela Ottati (14 points, 16 rebounds, four steals) accepted a feed from senior captain Katie Duma and knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner to open the 11-0 run.
* In Class B, it was a perfect day for Gina Maher and her Irvington girls. The coach was inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame and the Bulldogs dominated Lancaster St. Mary's 72-47. Senior forward Tara Gabelman put together 31 points and 13 rebounds to earn MVP honors for Irvington, which won all nine of its postseason games by double-digit margins to finish 26-1.
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
