Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015: Ogdensburg scoring record set in 1952 finally falls

   Leading off today: A record set more than six decades ago fell Friday night when Kinnon LaRose scored 51 points to lead Ogdensburg to a 102-53 boys basketball win over Salmon River in a Northern Athletic Conference Central Division game.

   LaRose total, done on 19-for-25 shooting from the field, bettered the school record of 49 by John Wright in 1952, Watertown's The Daily Times reported.

   LaRose made six 3-pointers and contributed 12 rebounds and six steals.

   Class AA surprise: A week that began with so much promise for the Shaker girls basketball team ended with a bit of a thud Friday in the form of its first home loss since Dec. 14, 2010.

   Erasing a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter, unranked Bethlehem handed No. 16 Shaker a 51-45 overtime loss in Section 2 Class AA action. Shaker was coming off a 55-44 win vs. No. 3 Shenendehowa in another overtime game.

   Gabby Giacone scored six consecutive points to pull Bethlehem within 39-36 with 5:19 left in the fourth quarter, and Jenna Giacone tallied her team's final five points of regulation -- including a four-point play -- to force overtime.

   Kaylee Rickert's steal and layup gave Bethlehem a 47-45 lead in OT, and Olivia Hughes (11 points) made four straight free throws down the stretch.

   More girls hoops, more OT: Maine-Endwell handed Horseheads its first loss this season, 64-56 in overtime in a Southern Tier Athletic Conference matchup.

   Horseheads, ranked ninth in Class AA this week, forced a tie on forward Jessica Schiefen's pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:30 of regulation. Maine-Endwell did all the scoring in overtime, with Jessica Shear knocking down a 3-pointer for the only basket.

   Impending milestone: Olean registered a 61-44 boys basketball win over Chautauqua Lake, moving coach Jeff Anastasia to within one triumph of 500 for his career.

   Ben Eckstrom led the way with 12 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

   Anastasia goes for No. 500 on Saturday vs. Buffalo's Park School in Rochester.

   Safety innovation: The Democrat and Chronicle combined two of my favorite topics -- technology and high school boxing -- Saturday with a story about safety in the ring.

   The return from the holiday break each year signals the start of training for the Aquinas Mission Bouts, the longest-running intramural high school boxing program in the country. (The only college with a longer-running program is Notre Dame.) This year, competitors preparing for the March bouts are being fitted with high-tech headbands that help coaches and trainers evaluate the blows students receive in the ring. The Linx Impact Assessment System, developed by BlackBox Biometrics in Rochester, is an example of wearable technology.

   "We are still, as a scientific field, trying to establish a relationship between hits to the head and something bad to

the brain," said Dr. Jeffrey Bazarian, who has served as an adviser to BlackBox and is an emergency medicine professor with a concussion and research program at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "It is tempting to think about this like cigarette smoking (increasing the risk of lung cancer). ... But it's not a one-to-one relationship. It gets complicated. I don't think anybody knows how this information is supposed to be used."

   At roughly the size of a stick of gum, the Linx IAS can be fit inside the helmet or protective headgear of almost any sport. Besides registering the number and magnitude of blows, the sensors record head movement to show where and how each hit is absorbed. Data is relayed in real time to a smartphone or tablet app, with a reading of between 1 and 100 based on the severity of the blow.

   "The more I looked at it, the more I liked the idea of it -- even though it will never replace the eyes of a trainer," said Dom Arioli, coach of Aquinas' co-ed boxing program.    The Linx IAS is expected to go on sale in late March with a suggested retail price of $199.

   In case you missed it: An blog on the site earlier today hit several topics including Joe Slaski, a paraplegic basketball referee in Section 5.