Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015: Fort Edward senior opens with 55-point effort

   Leading off today: Fort Edward senior guard Chris Boucher set a school single-game scoring record with 55 points in Wednesday's 92-47 boys basketball win at Salem.

   Boucher made seven 3-pointers among his 17 baskets in his season debut en route to erasing his own record of 53 points set as a junior in a game against Hadley-Luzerne.

   Meanwhile, Joe Girard III took down a Glens Falls school record held by Jimmer Fredette when he buried 10 3-pointers in a 65-64 non-league loss at Mekeel Christian. Fredette set the mark in the 2006-07 season.

   Girard finished with 45 points, one short of Fredette's school mark. He made 13 field goals and nine free throws in the game.

   Girard's father twice made 10 3-pointers in a game for St. Mary's High in Glens Falls.

   Zembiec lands statewide honor: Fresh off leading Aquinas to the NYSPHSAA Class AA championship over the weekend, senior quarterback Jake Zembiec has been named Gatorade's state football player of the year.

   The Penn State commit threw for four touchdowns and 485 yards on 20-for-25 accuracy in Sunday's 44-19 win over Saratoga. (Note: Those stats come from the coaches' breakdown of the film and differ from the accuracy-challenged official summaries supplied throughout the weekend.)

   Zembiec, the 2013 New York State Sportswriters Association Class AA player of the year, threw for 3,030 yards and 37 touchdowns this fall to set Section 5 records.

   Back to full strength? Syracuse.com reports that Fayetteville-Manlius star Peter Ryan will be back in the lineup when the Hornets seek to defend their Nike Cross Nationals boys championship on Saturday in Portland, Ore.

   Ryan didn't run last weekend during a second-place finish to Liverpool at the regional qualifier due to injuries. He was F-M's leading finisher at the 2014 NXN meet.

   By the way, TullyRunners.com projects the F-M girls team as winning its ninth national championship in 10 seasons.

   Morton says he missed kids: After a season on the Seton Hall University basketball staff, Dwayne "Tiny" Morton says he is happy to be coaching again at Abraham Lincoln in Brooklyn and teaching middle-school students.

   "I wasn't used to getting up in the morning and not being able to do even a lesson plan," Morton told Brooklyn Daily. "I was getting up on the morning and waiting to see what practice was going to be about."

   Morton said he watched many of his current players play for Lincoln last year and during the summer and that he is impressed with the 25-4 group he inherited from Kenny Pretlow, his former assistant at Lincoln.

   Morton is waiting on an eligibility ruling on fifth-year senior Jahlil Tripp, who played only one game as a junior after being shot in the right calf and then breaking his left tibia in two places during warmups for the game that was supposed to mark his return to action.

   By the way, Pretlow is an assistant at Thomas Jefferson this winter.

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   Milestone ahead: Jeff Cuilty can nail down his 400th coaching win in wrestling Wednesday when his Wallkill team opens against Kingston.

   Cuilty spent 24 years as Newburgh's coach and took over at Wallkill in 2012. He has said he will retire after the 2016-17 season.

   Cuilty's record stands at 399-180-8.

   Texas turmoil: Katy High will remain alive in the Texas UIL Class 6A-II playoffs despite using an ineligible player in last week's 66-0 win vs. Friendswood, MaxPreps.com reported.

   Katy officials self-reported the violation.

   "There's no ill intent here. That's not the accusation. There's been a violation of a rule," UIL executive Mike Motheral said at an emergency meeting Thursday.

   According to Katy's team Twitter account, the ineligible player participated in the last extra-point attempt in the game.

   Instead of being disqualified, Katy received a public reprimand and one year of probation. The fact that it was an administrative error rather than related to player or coaching behavior on the field apparently worked in Katy's favor.

   Katy, which won a 2012 state tile and made it to the past two finals, will face Manvel this weekend in a much-anticipated state quarterfinal. Katy was cited for using an ineligible player in the 1998 postseason and was kicked out of the playoffs on the eve of the state title game.