By John Schiano
MaxPreps.com
The teams that will be playing for New York State Public High School Athletic Association basketball championships March 20-22 in Glens Falls and Troy are now halfway through what will end up being a 26- to 28-game schedule.
With that in mind, it’s time to take a spin around the state to see which 2008 champions are in position to defend, which will be dethroned and who else might be challenging.
Boys basketball
Class AA: Despite a loss Sunday to Brooklyn’s Boys & Girls, defending champ Bishop Maginn (10-3) is strong again, led by outstanding point guard and Division I football recruit Bunduka Kargbo. But the Griffins have lost in home territory to unbeaten Niagara Falls, and the rest of the competition at the top is equally imposing. Mount Vernon improved to 10-2 over the weekend by beating PSAL top dog Thomas Jefferson and CHSAA contender St. Raymond. In fact, Albany Academy (14-1) and Albany CBA (10-2) will make it tough for Maginn to even make it out of Section II intact.
Class A: In light of the fact that defending champion Jamesville-DeWitt has tons of talent, topped by Syracuse University recruit Brandon Triche, it would be easy to hand the 2009 trophy to the Rams . . . so let’s just move on to Class B.
Seriously, J-D will get pushed by Ralph Watts and the gang at Peekskill (14-0), which presented coach Lou Panzanaro with career win No. 500 last week during a dismantling of a strong Poughkeepsie squad. But the Rams have made their case for the No. 1 overall ranking in New York this winter with a string of quality wins.
Class B: Olean (7-4) is good enough to defend its Section VI championship, but the state champion will almost certainly be coming from elsewhere and the smart money says Bishop Kearney (10-2) will make it through the Section V tournament next month unscathed and then battle the survivor from a talented trio of Section III schools: Hannibal, Marcellus or Mount Markham.
Class C: Top-ranked Avon (13-0) from Section V is blessed with five seniors checking in at 6-foot-1 to 6-5 and is balanced in the production department led by Matt Phillips (12 points per game), John Housel (11.7 points, 10 rebounds) and Dan Banach (8.1 points, 5.5 assists). The Braves face a test Feb. 11 when they host Bishop Kearney in a non-leaguer that may the biggest event in Livingston County since the arrival of electricity.
Maple Grove has dropped down to Class D, so there’s no defending champion in the mix but Blind Brook (11-1) out of Section I makes an intriguing future opponent, having lost only to Dobbs Ferry – a Class B team with a 10-1 record.
Class D: Maple Grove (10-3) started slowly after a long and successful football season, losing three early games to large-school opponents, The Dragons, led by ’08 Class C player of the year Chris Secky, are clicking now but hardly have a clear path. Greenport has Class D player of the year Ryan Creighton waiting for the Dragons, assuming they get past Section V upstart Charles G. Finney (15-0) or Batavia Notre Dame (9-3).
Senior guard Drew Boyea is averaging 24.3 points in his last seven games, but Chateaugay (11-3) is somewhat of a long shot to repeat because the Bulldogs don’t face the string of pit bulls that other teams prep against during the regular season. History suggests that’s an important consideration in boys brackets, where nly Chateaugay has ever gone home to Section X with the hardware.
Girls basketball
Class AA: The only certainty is that Rush-Henrietta will not make it four straight state championships –unless 2008 McDonald’s All-American Shenise Johnson gives up fun in the sun at the University of Miami to come back home. The center of NYSPHSAA power is most definitely downstate with the Section XI survivor between North Babylon (10-1), with star guard Eugenia McPherson, and Sachem East (11-0) likely facing Section IX’s Kingston or Mount Vernon from Section I.
In the end, though, does it really matter? No one in the NYSPHSAA can come within two touchdowns of nationally feared Murry Bergtraum or St. Michael in the Federation tournament the last weekend in March.
Class A: Count defending champ Malone Franklin (10-4) of Section X out at your own peril, but the smart money is on the survivor of the presumed Long Island final – Garden City vs. Harborfields – battling it out with uber-deep Section V representative Newark (with Virginia Tech signee Alyssa Fenyn), Pittsford Mendon or Honeoye Falls-Lima.
Amarrae Stevens had 13 points with 13 rebounds for Mendon (12-1) in a 53-44 win against HF-L over the weekend, with Carly Napier chipping in with 12 points.
Class B: With Taylor Pescetti (14.1 points a game) and Maggie Blair (11.9 points, 5.2 assists) leading the way, defending champion Briarcliff (13-0) is administering beatdowns that usually cost $49.95 to watch on pay-per-view. Though South Jefferson, Westhill, Lansing (coach Stu Dean won No. 400 last week vs. Newark Valley) and South Jefferson come into the week with unblemished records, the title is Briarcliff’s to lose.
Class C: There have been just enough bumps in the road this winter to confirm that Haldane probably can’t repeat, but the class is wide open because several sections have multiple contenders capable of getting through to Troy. Maple Hill (13-1) from Section II gets the nod as the favorite because the only loss was to Class A stalwart Holy Names (13-0) and the Wildcats’ ability to control the tempo will frustrate teams that favor a faster pace.
Class D: At 12-2, Hammond (12-2) is in a position to three-peat on the strength of Brooke Hollister (4.8 assists per game) feeding three players who score in double figures fairly regularly, but there were still seven unbeatens entering last weekend. Clymer (12-0) from Section VI worries potential foes because of the high-octane offense led by Tara Bailey (18.7 points per game, 5.3 assists, 6.6 rebounds, 6.9 steals) and a 52-45 win this month over Sherman, arguably the best one-loss team in the class.
More basketball
* In Rochester, the Wilson Magnet boys basketball team forfeited its first 10 victories of the season because it used an ineligible player. The unidentified player was too old by three weeks to compete under state rules.
* Rochester East senior guard Jerrold Brooks came through with the monster game of the season -- a career-high 45 points 13 assists, 12 rebounds and 11 steals -- to spark an 89-79 win over Edison. Brooks, who is averaging 26.4 points per game, made seven three-pointers in the first quarter.
* Prattsburgh edged Batavia Notre Dame, 70-64, thanks to a 22-6 run in the second quarter with ND's Kevin Francis on the bench with foul trouble. Ryan Caron had seven points in the second quarter and 29 for the game.
* Vaughn Labor's scored 25 points for Norwich in a 70-62 victory in OT against Oneonta. David Carson and Tim Clark combined for nine points in overtime for Norwich, which gave back a 45-35 lead after three quarters.
* The Cicero-North Syracuse (12-1) girls upset Oswego (14-2), 51-43, as Marybeth Egan hit for 16 points and Breanna Stewart added 14. Further jumbling the Section III scene, Fayetteville-Manlius went on a 19-3 run in the second quarter and beat Syracuse Corcoran, 63-52 as
Emily Trapani scored a game-high 22 points.
* Despite losing three starters to fouls, the state-ranked Coleman Catholic girls pulled out a 54-50 win over Spackenkill in two overtimes. Anne Shults scored 10 of her career-high 23 points in overtime for Coleman (10-1).
More weekend warriors
* Charlene Lipsey of Hempstead clicked off a 4:55.82 win in the girls mile in the New Balance Games at The Armory. New York Mills pole vaulter Linda Hadfield cleared 12-4 to win her event.
* Five Waverly wrestlers won finals en route to the Interscholastic Athletic Conference team championship at Watkins Glen. Waverly, ranked first in the state in Division 2, placed 14 competitors in the top six in the 16-team event. Waverly's champions were Trevor Nocchi (112 pounds), Brett Sewalt (135), Brian Sewalt (145), Logan Walker (152) and Dillion Fiske (285).
* Niagara-Wheatfield made its case for the title of the top Section VI wrestling team by topping Lancaster, 29-23. Antonio Ventry's pin 20 seconds into the 140-pound match clinched the win.
Indoor track
Millrose Games organizers have filled out the fields for Friday's invitational high school miles at Madison Square Garden. Anne Carey of St. John the Baptist, Emily Lipari of Roslyn and Emily Menges of Garden City will be in a girls race that includes defending champion Jillian Smith from New Jersey. The only New Yorker in the boys field is Marco Bertolotti of Port Washington.
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 johnschianosports@gmail.com.
