Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2015: Dolgeville roars to 41-0 lead in girls hoops victory

   Host Dolgeville scored the game's first 41 points and defeated Westmoreland 53-9 in a girls basketball game Monday. The score at halftime was 36-0.

   Fatima Prince paced the winners with 18 points and Emilie Lewandowski chipped in with 13.

   Boys basketball: More so than most sections in the state, non-league matchups tend to pair Section 5 teams from different classifications. That was the case again Monday when Avon, ranked 12th in the state in Class C, dropped a 64-62 game to Class A Rochester School of the Arts.

   Christian Simmons finished with 30 points and seven rebounds for SOTA, which rallied from six points down in the final 1:30. James Clarke added nine points and nine steals.

   Football coach retires: Ray Gallagher of The Examiner News tweeted that Mahopac football coach Tom Donahoe informed players on Monday that he has resigned after 12 seasons, citing family considerations. Donahoe and his wife Linda have two sons playing college football.

   Also set to leave: Croton-Harmon boys basketball coach Bill Thom, who's closing in on 400 career wins, says he'll retire at the end of the current season.

   Alumni news: Jaysean Paige, the former Jamestown all-state pick who was (at least) as good as any guard to come out of the left half of the state this century, was selected the Big 12 men's basketball player of the week. Paige, a West Virginia senior, averaged 21 points and 6 rebounds in wins at Virginia Tech and Kansas State. He's averaging 12.3 points a game for the season and shooting 52.2 percent.

   Former Syracuse Henninger two-sport star Romero Collier has withdrawn from Niagara University in his freshman year and is expected to transfer to a junior college, Syracuse.com reported.

   Collier, a football standout who averaged 16 points and 10 assists a game in his senior basketball season, signed to play basketball for Niagara in May.

   He appeared in six games for the Purple Eagles before withdrawing from school around Christmas. A Niagara spokesman said Collier was academically ineligible for the spring semester.

   Lineup set: Defending champ Minisink Valley will wrestle against Long Beach, Patchogue-Medford and Union-Endicott during the pool round Saturday at the U-E Duals.

   Minisink Valley is ranked third in the state among large schools by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   Top-ranked Monroe-Woodbury is grouped with No. 8 Massapequa, Brentwood and Phoenix, rated 14th among small schools.

   Wantagh, No. 2 among large schools, is in a pool with No. 4 Shenendehowa, Brockport and Farmingdale. The fourth prelim group contains No. 7 Rocky Point, No. 11 Fulton, No. 13 Hilton and MacArthur.    Sunday's semifinals and finals start at 11 a.m.

   Help wanted: The New York State Sportswriters Association is in the market for assistance from New York City in compiling its weekly rankings in boys basketball for the current season as well as football in the fall. If you're fluent in those sports within the five boroughs and looking to pick up a small stipend for your work, shoot me an email at jmoriello@yahoo.com.