basketball

 Missy Thurston was known for her defense when she played at Batavia High. She's definitely brought that to the Keuka women's basketball team.

The Storm won its sixth game in a row, including two over the weekend.

Keuka beat Penn State-Berks 61-46 on Saturday and Penn State-Harrisburg 71-38 on Sunday.

Thurston had five steals and 10 points on Saturday while scoring 14 points with three steals on Sunday.

She also had a total of 12 rebounds and seven assists over the weekend.

Thurston has started all 15 games for the Storm, which has improved to 8-7 because of the win streak. It is the first time the team has been above .500 all season long.

She is averaging 8.1 points and 4.8 rebounds. She leads the team with with 57 steals - more than double the player that is second on the team - and is second on the squad with 30 assists.

The men's team is 7-8 but has two locals in Attica's Rob Crowley and Elba's Ian Woodworth.

Crowley, a junior, has played in 11 points and is averaging 4.6 points and 1.2 rebounds per game. He also has five assists and six steals on the season.

Woodworth, a freshman forward, has played in just four games and is averaging .5 points per game.

Pavilion beat Notre Dame 40-36 in the Rotary Club Tournament earlier this season. But the Fighting Irish got revenge Monday night, picking up a tight 45-43 home victory.

Nichole Hart and Liz Geandreau were the heroes in picking up this win as Hart poured in 18 points - including four 3-pointers - and Geandreau had nine points, but grabbed 15 rebounds.

The 15 boards was an astonishing number as Pavilion's Marcy Ethington is a force in the paint.

The game was tight throughout as the Fighting Irish had a 27-23 lead at halftime and was up 35-32 after three periods of play.

But the Golden Gophers had no quit in them as they opened the fourth quarter with Amie Brooks dropping in a pair of free throws and making it a 1-point game.

Geandreau had a bucket for Notre Dame and after a turnover,  Brooks made a steal and scored to make it 37-36.

The Fighting Irish then took an eight point lead with Hart scoring five points and Geandreau adding a basket to make it 44-36 with a few minutes left in the game.

Ethington scored, Danielle Tallo hit a 3-pointer and Brooks scored to make the score 44-43 with a minute remaining.

Geandreau got to the line and hit 1-of-2 foul shots.

The Golden Gophers (10-6) had a few decent looks, but wound up having to foul as the clock ran out. Brooks scored 16 points and Ethington added 10.

Jayvee call-up Carly Pike had six points to go with Hart's 18 and Geandreau's nine. The Fighting Irish are now 12-3.

 If you are wondering why there have been no updates on Bryan Anderson since the first few weeks of the season, it is because he played in seven games before suffering a back injury that kept him out of action for a while.

After the Batavia grad and Roberts Wesleyan freshman healed up, there were some other setbacks at the school that will keep him out for the rest of the season.

In those seven games, Anderson averaged 12.9 minutes and 5.3 points per game. The big man averaged 2.7 boards and had five blocks for the year.

The Raiders are 9-12.

 The cuts made by the NYSPHSAA this week are upsetting a lot of people. 

I went through the details of the cuts yesterday and the one that is upsetting the most is the cuts in amount of games being played.

5. Support the reduction of the maximum number of contests permitted during the regular season. Sports with 24 contests will be reduced to 20, sports with 20 contests will be reduced to 18 and sports with 18 contests will be reduced to 16. Wrestling will be reduced to 20 points. Football will be reduced from 10 to 9. The 9th game is permitted, with section approval, for teams who do not qualify for sectional play. For the teams involved in the sectional tournament the maximum number of contests shall be 10. For the sections involved in the state championship three additional games are permitted for a total of 13 games for the season: 1 game for regionals, 1 game for semifinals, and 1 game for championships. Effective for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. APPROVED

I know that coaches Mike Rapone of Notre Dame and Jim Burke of Prattsburgh were upset that if the cuts went through it would end the home-and-away tradition between the two programs.

The 500-plus win coaches were very much against cutting the number of games from 20 to 18.

But in John Moriello's blog today, he goes into more detail and has quotes from all over the state.

   Grand Island AD Jon Roth: "I really don’t know what two or four contests is going to do for anybody. I don’t think they should penalize the kids. I know cuts have to be made somewhere, but cutting games is not the answer.”

   Section 2 football chairman Gary VanDerzee: "In all honesty, football made out the best of all of them. It's just a horrible, horrible decision, made by people afraid to make the decision in their own (leagues or sections).

   Section 2 boys soccer chairman Jim Gillis: "I'm not surprised by this, but I think it is absurd. There are other things that could have been done state-wide, section-wide and league-wise that could have avoided cutting of games. Unfortunately, we weren't given that opportunity. We had no say in these moves."

   Section 2 baseball chairman Al Roy: "I know when we just had a baseball meeting, everyone felt this is something that leagues, sections and individual schools should address. This vote seems like a knee-jerk reaction."

 Section 4 interscholastic sports coordinator Ben Nelson: "I'm not really surprised they reduced the number of games, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, or to most of the AD's (in Section 4)."

It is evident that these changes are upsetting to people all throughout the state, not just Section 5. The NYSPHSAA is taking away some great experiences that high school athletes could have. Next year, Notre Dame and Prattsburgh will probably not get a chance to play. That is a shame and not the only traditions that are going to die because of these cuts.

The Batavia basketball team went off in the second quarter, having a 23-13 advantage, and went on to beat Penfield 67-62 Saturday.

Andrew Hoy and Josh Budlong had five points apiece in the period.

But, Penfield did come back to tie the score at 62 with a minute left in regulation, potentially setting the Blue Devils up for a second consecutive overtime game.

Andrew Hoy got to the free throw line three times and converted 5-of-6 shots to seal the victory. He finished with a game-high 26 points.

Marcus Hoy scored eight points with six assists and seven rebounds. Joe Schlossel had 14 points with Budlong adding seven points. 

Batavia improves to 13-2.

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Spencerport dropped Notre Dame's record to 6-7-1 with a 6-3 victory.

Kyle Mark had a hat-trick for Spencerport (10-5-2).

Jason Harasimowicz, Dan Versage and Beau Richter each scored for the Fighting Irish with Thomas Dehr stopping 21 shots.

 Cheerleading coaches have been saying for years that their sport is a contact sport and it has been proven to be one of the more dangerous sports in the past.

But the Wisconsin Supreme Court made a ruling this week on a case where a cheerleader was dropped while attempting a stunt in 2004.

She filed a lawsuit against the cheerleader that dropped her, causing a serious head injury.  The District Court ruled cheerleading was not a contact sport and ruled in favor of the cheerleader that was dropped.

The reasoning was that the competing teams do not have contact with each other.

So then it went to the Supreme Court and was overturned, making it a contact sport. That means that cheerleading is the same in Wisconsin as sports like football and basketball, where an athlete cannot sue another a member of your own team that causes a mistake that leads to an injury.

Many people disregard cheerleading as a sport, but with this decision many states could look to do the same, including New York. The Section 5 championships are on Feb. 22.

High school cheerleading is a contact sport and therefore its participants cannot be sued for accidentally causing injuries, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a case being closely watched in the cheerleading world.

The court ruled that a former high school cheerleader cannot sue a teammate who failed to stop her fall while she was practicing a stunt. The court also said the injured cheerleader cannot sue her school district.

The National Cheer Safety Foundation said the decision is the first of its kind in the nation.

You can read the full Associated Press story here.

 The petition to try and save the Empire State Games doesn't mean a thing to the organizers of the games in Hudson Valley.

There are currently 3131 signatures on the online petition, but there will still be no summer games for area athletes to compete in.

But Alan Wechsler of The Times Union reports that the petition will not save the games:

The state has paid about $2.7 million per year to run the annual games, but balked this year due to budget problems. The $285 pays for entry fees, food and dorm rooms at colleges near the venues.

The petition is addressed to Gov. David Paterson and Carol Ash, commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and seeks to reverse the changes.

"The Summer Games as a whole entity brings in $10 to $15 Million to the local economy of the host city," the petition says. "At a cost to the state of only $2 million, we feel this is a very wise investment."

Local volunteers had even raised $300,000 to keep the games alive, but it that didn't matter to Hudson Valley either.

"That was very troublesome to all of the volunteers that were involved," said committee member Denise VanBuren of Poughkeepsie. "We felt unable to stage the games as we had committed."

The decision was made despite having raised about $300,000 from local sponsors. The petition wouldn't change their minds, she said.

The Iona basketball team and Attica's all-time leading scorer Derek Wolfley has won six of its last seven games and has upped its record to 10-11.

Wolfley is the first Genesee Region League player since Roosevelt Bouie in the mid 1970s to earn a Division I basketball scholarship.

As expected, a freshman coming from a small school league like the GR isn't going to be starting on any Division I team. But Wolfley is the 12th man out of 14 in terms of playing time and has played in more games than six other players on the team.

He has played in 18-of-21 games and is averaging 1 point and .8 rebounds per game, getting 7.7 minutes of playing time per game.

He has blocked five shots and dished out five assists.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about a petition out there to try and save the Empire State Games. The petition is growing and now has 3003 signatures. I signed it in hopes of saving the games, which have been a tremendous thing for a lot of people for three decades.

Messenger Post writer Mike Bailey jumps on board in the fight today and writes a very good column on the topic.

There will be no Empire State Games in 2009 as of right now, as state budget cuts are forcing the annual Olympic-style competition to the back burner. The word “unfortunate” is an understatement when it comes to this decision.

It’s more like a travesty. 

Apparently, I am not the only one who feels this way, and one woman, Arlene Feil, decided to do something about it. She has set up an online petition at www.petitiononline.com — a link also can be found on the wrestling site www.armdrag.com — aimed at New York Gov. David Paterson pleading with him to re-institute the games immediately.

Basically the letter states that events such as the games help stimulate the economy rather than hurt it, due to all the travel and expenses that athletes face over the course of the weekend. She says that the ESG generate $10 million to $15 million for the local economy of the host city and points out how much of that revenue is returned to the state.

It took me about a minute to sign the petition and if you are a supporter of local sports or giving kids a chance to compete during the summer, I would recommend spending a minute to sign the petition.

 The state rankings for boys basketball was released today and they are very disappointing for local teams.

First off, Batavia took a huge drop after losing to Pittsford Sutherland for the second time this season.

The Blue Devils were ranked No. 12 in Class A last week and have dipped all the way into a tie for 25th in the state, tied with Elmira Southside of Section 4.

Notre Dame took it on the chin against Prattsburgh this week and fell from No. 6 to No. 9 in Class D. Prattsburgh moved up from No. 15 to No. 6.

Oakfield-Alabama nearly lost to Kendall and was shocked by Elba last week. The Hornets dropped from No. 12 to totally off the chart in Class C.

With the state possibly cutting games next season, this may be the last time Letchworth and Attica play. The tradition has gone on for years.

It was the Indians that came away with the victory because of a pair of runs that ended with a 44-39 victory.

The first half had zero entertainment value as the score was tied at 18 when the second quarter buzzer went off. Some people called it ugly basketball, but I'm going with a good defensive battle.

Travis Tones hit two big 3-pointers early in the third quarter, with a Cam McLaughlin bucket thrown in the mix. 

Letchworth had a seven point lead before Tate Westermeier had a basket, Bryan Thompson scored and Westermeier drained a 3-pointer to have his team trailing just 31-29 after three periods of play.

The was back-and-forth in the final frame, but Jim Przybylak hit a 3-pointer and Tones hit one of two foul shots.

Attica had to start fouling after that and Tones hit 7 of his 8 attempts in the fourth quarter.

Tones finished the day with 20 points and McLaughlin had six points with eight rebounds. Przybylak finished with nine for the Indians (12-2).

Westermeier scored 17 points to lead the Blue Devils (6-7), who have been in a slump since the Christmas break.

Craig Wolfley might have had his most solid performance thus far in the season, scoring six points and grabbing 11 rebounds. 

 Notre Dame may have suffered a difficult loss, but guard Kevin Schildwaster was named Player of the Week for Genesee Region League Division II.

Schildwaster won two of three games this week, and has had a big week playing defense. He also had a season-high 13 points against Prattsburgh.

Byron-Bergen's 6-foot-6 forward David Garnish won the honor for Division I. He averaged 7.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and two blocks this past week.

Alexander's Rachel Pettys had a total of 18 points, 24 rebounds, eight assists, 12 steals and six blocked shots in a win over Lyndonville and a loss to Elba. She earned GR Player of the Week for Division I.

Kendall's Meghan Fahy scored 41 points and had 12 boards in two games last week. The Eagles lost to Oakfield-Alabama by just one point and her free throw shooting was a big reason why. Fahy hit 11-of-12 from the charity stripe.

 Batavia grad Adam Brasky and his King's College basketball team fell to 8-8 after a 66-63 loss to FDU-Florham over the weekend.

The team is just 1-7 in the division, but has a 7-1 record out of the division.

Brasky - a sophomore guard -  has played in all 16 game while averaging 2.4 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.

He is playing almost 18 minutes and has handed out 20 assists this season.

In John Moriello's blog today, he is talking money and sports. 

New York has already lost the Empire State Games as Hudson Valley said there was no way they could host the game this summer if athletes are going to be forced to play $300 each to participate and there will be cuts in some of the "smaller sports".

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association is also looking into cuts, a story that was broken on The Batavian. There is talks of regionalizing state games, eliminating the amount of games played in the regular season and post season for some sports and cutting down on the amount of champions in individual sports.

Moriello thinks that the NYSPHSAA is moving too fast:

More often, however, issues are resolved incrementally and painfully. Quick, easy fixes just do not exist.

   That's where the state of New York stands today. The economic downturn has shredded the economy, and elected officials in Albany face a deficit in excess of $15 billion in next year's budget. Among the casualties is the education budget, with proposed state aid being pared back considerably from what local school districts were anticipating when they started the annual planning process in the fall.

   And that has everything to do with why the executive committee of the state Public High School Athletic Association will vote on more than a dozen cost-cutting proposals at its quarterly meeting at the end of the week.

    The NYSPHSAA officials are trying to be proactive in dealing with financial issues. They rightly recognize that cuts are coming in virtually all aspects of the education budget and want to take the initiative in setting priorities and finding solutions lest someone not as well informed try doing it for them. That's their right, and I would even say it's their responsibility.

Moriello also talks about the cost of teams that travel to our border states for games. It is a good read, well worth checking out.

We did a post earlier in the week on a basketball team that beat another one - from a school that teaches kids with mental disabilities - 100-0.

At the time, school officials from Covenant School had issued an apology. Apparently coach Micah Grimes had no part of that according to the Associated Press.

 The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.

The school even issued a statement on its Web site saying "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition"

Grimes sent an e-mail to the The Dallas Morning News saying he does not agree with the school's apology.

"In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Web site, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed," Grimes wrote in the e-mail, according to the newspaper. "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Wilson-Magnet does not play in the same sectional bracket, but many local fans like to stick around and watch the big boys play.

Wilson had a very good chance to be there, but will not be because a player was over the age limit to play high school basketball. His name was not released by the school, but a thread on Section 5 Talksback claims the player is Thomas Bell, a senior guard.

“Our responsibility is to respond to any accusations that are made and do some research,” AD Carlos Cotto, told Jeff Diveronica of the Democrat & Chronicle. “I acted on (a question about the student’s age) and we did what we had to do as soon as we found out. It’s a disappointment, but we have a responsibility to honor the rules that govern the athletic program.”

Wilson was the No. 2 seed in the Class AA1 bracket - behind Rush-Henrietta  - with a record of 10-3. They had to forfeit all 10 wins, but are now 1-13 because they beat Greece Odyssey. This should make that bracket interesting, for those of us that enjoy following all of Section 5.

Wilson is a great squad that might end up as a lower-middle seed and cruise to the finals where there is a good chance Rush-Henrietta will be waiting.