Leading off today: The New York State Public High School Athletic Association's boys basketball quarterfinals got off to a thrilling start Friday as Martin Luther King ousted Bridgehampton 44-42 in Class D.
Rajien Griffin’s 3-pointer with less than a second left pulled out the victory and advanced the Tigers to next weekend's semifinals in Glens Falls. Griffin finished with 22 points and seven rebounds.
Down by one with 15.7 seconds left, the Tigers went to Griffin for the final shot. After the guard’s initial attempt bounced off the front rim, the ball was tipped back to Griffin, who knocked down his second attempt.
A 12-1 run down the stretch gave Bridgehampton a 37-36 lead with 4:13 remaining, and MLK forward Jermaine Shaw (nine points and 12 rebounds) fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.
“I had to trust my teammates, trust myself,” Griffin told The Journal News. “There was two seconds on the clock. My coach said shoot and I just let it go.”
Committed to SU: West Genesee junior running back Naesean Howard has committed to playing football at Syracuse University beginning in 2014.
”Syracuse has been my dream school since I was younger,” Howard told Scout.com. “I just love the town of Camillus and I know Coach (Scott) Shafer is going to build a great football program in the upcoming years. I just want to help the program as much as I can.”
Howard was a third-team all-state selection las fall. He joins Poly Prep defensive tackle Jay Hayes (Notre Dame) on the very short list of early commits thus far.
Back to court: Section 3 might as well just move its offices to within walking distance of State Supreme Court in Syracuse. For the third time in 16 months -- remember the Skaneateles football team in 2011 and Fayetteville-Manlius hockey last month? -- an attention-getting dispute is heading to court.
The guardian for Westhill student Juan Carlos Pena filed papers Friday asking for an injunction and temporary restraining order that would allow the baseball prospect to practice with the team while a judge considers a petition to overturn Section 3's ruling denying an extra year of eligibility, The Post-Standard reported.
Pena, an all-state shortstop in Class B last year, is a candidate to be taken in the Major League Baseball draft this June, and he also has a scholarship to play at Iowa. However, school records indicate that Pena began ninth grade in September 2008, which means his eligibility clock ended last June even though he was only a junior academically.
According to the paper's timeline, Pena was a freshman at Perth Amboy, N.J., in 2008-09, attended school in the Dominican Republic the following year and attended Westhill the next two school years. The NYSPHSAA rule that Section 3 enforced says that Pena's four-year eligibility clock began ticking when he entered the ninth grade at Perth Amboy.
The injunction request will be heard at 2 p.m. Tuesday
