Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017: No. 1 Pelham cruises past No. 2 Skaneateles

   Leading off today: Justin Ming turned aside all 17 shots as top-ranked Pelham blanked No. 2 Skaneateles 4-0 in a boys hockey matchup between Division II powers Saturday.

   Nat Heintz, Drew Montanarella, Gib Smith and Michael MacInnis did the scoring as Pelham extended its winning streak to 11 games. It was the first win for the Pelicans in four meetings against Skaneateles and avenged a 3-1 loss a year ago in the NYSPHSAA semifinals in Buffalo.

   "We all came in with a little fire in our bellies," Ming told Syracuse.com.

   Said coach Ed Witz: "If we're fortunate enough to win our section and fortunate enough to win the regional and fortunate enough to get to Buffalo and we run into these guys, at least we have some history that we beat them in their own building in their own tournament. That's a nice pat on the back for us."

    • In that rarest of animals, Division I No. 11 Fairport and Greece Athena/Odyssey played to a scoreless tie.

   Fairport's Michael Layer turned aside 30 shots and counterpart Luke Green made 27 saves. Fairport has surrendered a total of one goal in its last four games and eight goals in the last nine contests,

   U-E Duals: Sunday's semifinals of the Union-Endicott Duals will be an all-Long Island affair as defending champion Long Beach, Wantagh, Rocky Point and Mattituck advanced out of the prelim pools.

   The semis will pair Long Beach (ranked No. 2 in Division I) vs. Wantagh (No. 10) and Rocky Point (No.4) vs. Mattituck, the state's top-rated Division II team.

   In the day's big matchup, Mattituck scored a 39-34 win over Hilton, ranked No. 1 in Division I.

   Girls basketball: Alex Tudor scored a game-high 19 points, including a jumper in the final minute that put Shenendehowa ahead for good in a 49-46 victory against Jamesville-DeWitt.

   Shenendehowa is ranked 11th in the state in Class AA and J-D is third in Class A.

   J-D expanded a three-point halftime edge to a 41-36 lead entering the fourth quarter as junior Meg Hair scored eight of her team-high 18 points. But the Plainsmen fought back, took the lead on Tudor's bucket and held the Red Rams scoreless over the final 2:11.

   J-D managed just 17 second-half points.

   "At halftime we switched to a 3-2 zone (from man)," Shen coach Joseph Murphy said. "We got out a bit on their shooters and took away their high-low action. That really kind of bogged them down in the second half."

   UConn honors slain teen: The University of Connecticut has made slain Mount Vernon JV player Shamoya McKenzie an honorary member of the Huskies women's basketball program.

   A letter to the family of the teen, killed by a stray bullet in a Dec. 31 shooting, declared "Once a Husky, Always a Husky."

   McKenzie, 13, wanted to go to UConn to play basketball and major in business. Members of the Mount Vernon community reached out to UConn officials, who quickly provided the letter and a jersey with McKenzie's No. 30.

   Time to read the meter: The Florida High School Athletic Association will switch to the metric system this spring when it come to measuring jumps and throws, Milesplit.com reported. The FHSAA voted in September to replace the imperial system in state competitions this spring and for all meets in 2018.

   The NCAA long ago switched to metric measurements, which are also standard in international track and field. Measurements to the centimeter would technically be less precise in most field events (only marginally so), but comparisons to old marks for the sake of updating record books would be simple.

   On the other hand, race distances already adhere to the metric system on the now-standard 400-meter tracks with the exception of the occasional mile run at invitationals.