Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015: Oriskany breaks through against New York Mills

   Leading off today: I'll try to keep today's blog short so I can get out and mow the lawn, seal the driveway and wash the car.

   Boys basketball: The rematch of the 2015 Section 3 Class D boys basketball final was all you could ask for from a late-December game and more. Senior Anthony Warcup scored 10 of his season-high 22 points in the fourth quarter and state-ranked No. 8 Oriskany remained unbeaten with a 63-57 win over the fourth-ranked Marauders on Tuesday.

   New York Mills point guard Terry Nichols popped for 34 points, but Oriskany senior Ryan Schmadel produced 16 points and 16 rebounds, and Ricky Phelps added nine points and six assists.

   Oriskany snapped New York Mills' 22-game league winning streak and beat its rival for the first time in eight tries.

   "We did it as a team," Oriskany coach Chris Mahoney told the Times Telegram. "Every time they would make a little run, we came right back, and its not just Ryan Schmadel out there -- we've got a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things."

    • Fairport won a much-anticipated interclass skirmish in Section 5, riding senior Matthew Keenan's 31 points to an 82-69 win over Greece Athena. Fairport is 10th in the state in Glass AA, and Athena is rated 11th in Class A.

   Junior guard Dan Masino chipped in with 20 points and four assists for the winners. Athena senior Anthony Lamb finished with 24 points.

   A full day at Cooperstown: Senior guard Liz Millea and her Cooperstown basketball teammates had a full day. Millea's day began with the funeral of an aunt who died last week. The day concluded with Millea finishing with 34 points in a 50-35 win over Milford.

   In between, Cooperstown opened at No. 1 in the first state Class C rankings of the season and Millea became her program's career scoring leader.

   She entered 22 points shy of Samantha Fox's record of 1,367 points from 2004-2008 and rattled off all the team's points in an opening 14-4 spurt vs. Milford.

   "I've seen her play a few times and she's streaky, but when she gets it going, the lights are out," Milford coach Jim Weir told The Daily Star.

   The win was the 20th in a row for Cooperstown.

   More milestones: Erin Langworthy assured her place in Warrensburg basketball history with a 31-point effort to become the Burghers' all-time basketball scorer -- male or female.

   Langworthy entered the 48-31 win over North Warren needing just four points to break the school record of 1,574 points by her great uncle, Terry Kollman, in 1974.

   She passed her mother, 1988 Warrensburg grad Amy Monroe Langworthy (1,207 points), last season.

    • Senior Connor McCart scored 46 points to lead Hoosick Falls to a 70-55 win over Granville, giving coach Mike Lilac Jr. his 300th boys basketball victory.

   McCart added 16 rebounds.

   "I've had a lot of help and I've been around a long time. You think back to the kids you've coached and how lucky you've been," Lilac told The Bennington Banner.

   Deep end of the pool: Maine-Endwell junior Jordan Klym set a Section 4 diving record at Horseheads on Tuesday. His six-dive total of 362.25 off the 1-meter board broke the mark of 341.80 by Derek Linenbaugh of Susquehanna Valley in 2012.

   Hockey: Mamaroneck is attracting notice after having moved up to NYSPHSAA Division I in the offseason. The very focused Tigers, ranked second in the state by the New York State Sportswriters Association, defeated No. 12 Clarkstown 3-0.

   "It's crazy how we've responded, how different the mindset is," center Alex Ewald told The Journal News after Mamaroneck improved to 10-0. "Last year, we had a lot of bickering. Guys would yell at each other if we missed a pass or didn't finish. This year, everything is positive.

   "We think we're going to win every game."

   Junior goalie Tommy Spero battled through a lengthy 5-on-3 in the second period and finished with 25 saves for the shutout.

   Interesting development: A 4-4 deadlock by members of Newburgh's school board shot down a resolution to suspend girls basketball coach Rich Desiderio until Dec. 26, The Times Herald-Record reported. The vote came after five players defended the coach and two parents criticized the district's handling of the situation.

   The paper reported last week that the fifth-year coach had been removed from running the team.

   So much for that: The weekly boys Class AA basketball rankings we posted Tuesday morning were rendered obsolete shortly after they were compiled Sunday my way of unranked Bishop Loughlin's 67-52 win over Long Island Lutheran at the City Legendz Invitational.

   Loughlin's Markquis Nowell scored 27 points and helped limit Devonte Green (who had just picked up an offer from Indiana University) to 16 points.

   On the subject of boys basketball rankings, Class C is shaping up as unusually interesting this season. NYSSWA editor Neil Kerr, who compiles our rankings each week, observed last week that there's a notable lack of depth in that class. The more I look at it, the more I realize he's right.

   Other than top-ranked Stony Brook, which has few competitors in Section 11, not a single school in the top 20 stands out as a no-brainer to win its section next March.

   Without naming names, I can pick out at least four teams in each of the other classes that can be penciled into the NYSPHSAA tournament brackets right now.