Leading off today: The Clarkstown boys bowling team was unable to compete in Tuesday's Section 1 tournament because it exceeded the NYSPHSAA limit for regular-season matches.
It was the result of a seemingly innocuous decision by coach Corey Stahl to agree to a format change for a regular-season match against Scarsdale, The Journal News reported. With both schools carrying large rosters, Stahl agreed to bowl a split match -- a 5-on-5 match on one pair of lanes, and a 5-on-5 match on another pair -- to allow more bowlers to participate. But under state rules, the contest counted as two matches for both teams and eventually put Clarkstown over the 20-match maximum.
After being advised of a potential problem by Stahl, Section 1 officials conferred and eventually took the matter to Robert Zayas, executive director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, but the rule regarding maximum contests is specific.
"Corey just thought he was helping out Scarsdale," Section 1 bowling co-coordinator Steve Luciana said. "There was no malintent to what he did at all."
Tough loss for LuHi: Senior guard R.J. Cole propelled Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony to a 55-49 victory over visiting Long Island Lutheran, the NYSSWA's second-rated large school.
St. Anthony raced to an 18-point lead early, but two Brandon Jacobs 3-pointers helped trim the deficit to 11 at the half. After St. Anthony restored the lead to 15. LuHi battled back again to close within 52-49 before the Friars' Nigel Marshall converted a missed free throw by teammate Alexander Rice (the son of former Binghamton great King Rice) for an insurance basket.
Buzzer-beaters: Nas Johnson hit a 10-footer with three-tenths of a second left in overtime to give Liverpool a 58-57 win over West Genesee in boys basketball.
Liverpool is ranked 15th and West Genesee 16th in Class AA this week. (Full rankings here.)
Johnson finished with 21 points, including six in overtime.
West Genesee had rallied from five points down with 3:30 left in regulation with the help of four missed Warriors free throws in the final 1:03.
• Trailing with :01.1 left and inbounding under his own basket, Craig Brown heaved a pass across midcourt to Danny Ashley. With a defender draped all over him, Ashley took one step right and shot from about 25 feet from the basket. The ball went through the hoop at the buzzer as Uniondale edged Freeport 75-73.
Outlandish Calif. game: Sophomore guard LaMelo Ball, younger brother of UCLA star Lonzo Ball, scored 92 points in Chino Hills' 146-123 victory over Los Osos on Tuesday. It was Chino Hills' first game after having its 60-game winning streak snapped by Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill over the weekend.
Ball, who scored 41 points in the fourth quarter, was 37-for-61 from the field, including 30-for-39 from 2-point range.
Los Osos coach Dave Smith called it "a joke." He told the Los Angeles Times Chino Hills players fouled on purpose to prevent his team from running time off the clock, thus giving Ball more possessions and shots after the game was already in hand.
"I've been coaching for 35 years, and we've turned high school athletics into individualism," Smith said.
LaMelo Ball and his older brother LiAngelo have committed to join Lonzo Ball at UCLA.
Catching up: There were some noteworthy achievements that I hadn't gotten around to mentioning the past couple of days:
• Austin Trombley of Northern Adirondack booked career wrestling win No. 200 during the Section 7 dual championships Saturday. Trombley was 3-1 on the day with one pin.
• Saranac's Jordan Daniels recorded a pin in her second match of the day at the Section 7 duals, making her the fourth girl in NYSPHSAA history to register 100 career wins. Previously reaching the milestone were Amy
