Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014: Monroe-Woodbury earns U-E Duals crown

   Leading off today: Monroe-Woodbury captured the Union-Endicott Duals wrestling championship Sunday, riding six pins to a 46-24 victory over Shenendehowa. The Crusaders rallied from a 15-0 deficit after four bouts.

   Hilton topped Rocky Point 41-25 for third place.

   In the morning semifinals, fourth-ranked Shenendehowa downed No. 7 Hilton on criteria after the squads battled to a 36-36 tie, and second-ranked M-W defeated Rocky Point 39-32.

   Rocky Point, ranked 10th by the NYSSWA, advanced from its pool Saturday with wins by 44-27 over North Rockland, 39-32 vs. No. 14 Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and then a 41-28 surprise vs. No. 3 Minisink Valley. No. 20 MacArthur sprang a 37-32 upset on No. 8 Clarence, only to be knocked out of the championship pool with a 44-30 loss to No. 7 Hilton.

   The U-E title was the first for the Crusaders since 2000. Coach Steve Fischbein has already announced he is retiring after the conclusion of the season.

   "To go out with a victory at U-E, it's the most special thing in the world," Fischbein told the Press & Sun-Bulletin. "This is a great group of kids and a great group of coaches I work with it. It's an awesome feeling."

   M-W took the lead for good against Shen at 25-21 as Marco Vespa pinned Mike Dimonda in 1:17 of their 99-pound match. The Crusaders clinched when Evan Barczak won by a 13-6 decision over Kevin Guardino at 120 to put M-W ahead 40-21.

   More wrestling: Six Long Island competitors from six different schools are ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes in the latest New York individual rankings put out by New York Wrestling News.

   Section 4 matched Nassau and Suffolk counties with three top-ranked wrestlers in the combined Division I and II ratings.

   An all-around good day: Ursuline girls basketball coach Beth Wooters began her day by being inducted into her school's inaugural hall of fame class.

   She finished it with career win No. 495, a 47-43 victory Saturday against local rival New Rochelle.

   "I told the girls, I feel like we were on the wrong side of a speed bump and we got over that bump," Wooters told The Journal News.

   Ursuline held the Huguenots to just 12 second-half points.

   More girls basketball: Kristen Baumer, making her first varsity start, hit both ends of 1-and-1 with :36 left in overtime to break a 48-48 tie and lift Penfield past Syracuse Nottingham 50-48 in a matchup of state-ranked teams.

   Penfield is fifth and Nottingham 16th in the most recent New York State Sportswriters Association Class AA rankings.

   The Patriots' Emma Guy scored 20 points, including four in overtime, and grabbed eight rebounds. Penfield played without senior Margot Hetzke, whose ankle injury snapped a streak of 90 varsity starts.

   Speaking of coaches, Pat Bassett finally returned to the bench and South Jefferson edged General Brown 31-24. Austin Stevens scored a game-high 17 points.

   South Jefferson (3-0) hadn't played since Dec. 6. Bassett was put on administrative leave Dec. 10-17 for undisclosed reasons, and two additional games were since postponed by weather.

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   And still more girls basketball: Mary Jo Monnin of The Buffalo News delivered a solid lead off Friday's big game in Western New York:

   "It was a long night for Jamestown.

   "The team's bus broke down on the way to their game and then their wheels fell off in the fourth quarter of a 76-57 loss to Cardinal O'Hara on Friday."

   Jamestown is ranked third in the state in Class A and Jamestown is 13th in Class AA.

   The game was tied at 47 through three quarters before O'Hara went on a 29-10 run over the final eight minutes. Jailyn Dickson scored nine of her 10 points in the fourth quarter. Jontay Walton and Aisha Shabazz scored 16 points apiece, and Kelsey McCarthy added 15 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks.

   Boys basketball notes: Olean impressed Saturday in an 87-71 win over Greece Athena, ranked 11th in the state in Class AA. Senior center Sam Eckstrom finished with 34 points and 14 rebounds for the Huskies, ranked fourth in Class B.

   "He caught, he kept the big man off balance and he was able to score up-and-under, left hand, right hand," Olean coach Jeff Anastasia said. "I was really proud of the guys because I said, 'Sam is scoring every time he touches it,' and these guys are so unselfish, they kept going to him. I said, 'We can keep going to him until they figure out a way to stop him.'"

   Wil Bathurst added 24 points in Olean's 21st straight home win. Nick Schmidt scored 17 points, including four 3-pointers.

   Extra points: Sodus' boys basketball game at Lyons on Saturday was suspended at half time after a leaky roof began dropping water onto the court. Lyons, 14th in the state in Class C, was leading 30-20.