Leading off today: With the Section 3 tournament straight ahead, the Bishop Ludden boys basketball team finds itself on its third coach of the season.
Athletic Director Gallagher Driscoll ran the bench Tuesday during a 54-52 victory over Syracuse CBA in the regular-season finale at Christian Brothers Academy. He was pressed into duty because New York Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Donnelly went out on leave of absence last week following surgery related to prostate cancer, and then Gaelic Knights assistant Len Rauch was hospitalized Tuesday due to a heart ailment, Syracuse.com reported.
Rauch underwent a procedure to insert a stent in a blocked artery and returned home Wednesday.
"I give the kids all of the credit in the world. They responded," Driscoll said.
Ludden, ranked 15th in the state this week, is seeded No. 1 in the Section 3 Class AA tournament. The Gaelic Knights begin defense of their sectional title Tuesday at home against either CBA or Utica Proctor.
Driscoll said both coaches could be back on the bench for sectionals.
"We're still trying to figure that out," he said. "They're passionate. They both want to be back out there."
News on two deaths: Rich Gilooly, a teacher at Catholic Central in Troy who coached in the high school and college ranks, died Tuesday at the age of 39.
The 1996 Catholic Central graduate served as a men's assistant basketball coach at both RPI and Hudson Valley Community College. He was also the HVCC interim women's coach for the 2015-16 season.
Gilooly coached at Schalmont for two years, led Catholic Central for the 2003-04 season and most recently served as the head coach at Bishop Maginn beginning with the 2011-12 season.
• Former Wellsville Principal Frank Cady, who was a successful coach in numerous sports, died Monday.
His softball teams compiled a 198-39 record and captured seven Section 5 titles from 1992-2002, winning 58 games in a row during one stretch. Some of his best teams missed out on possible state championships because Section 5 did not participate until 1997.
Cady was an avid tennis player who founded the program in Wellsville. The boys went 83-20 from 1965-1973 and the girls were 13-0 from 1970-73 in a limited schedule.
Wednesday basketball: Jamie Shoemaker scored his only point in the game on a free throw with :05 remaining in overtime to lift Greece Athena to a 46-45 boys win over Canandaigua. Athena is ranked 19th in the state in Class A.
Kenny Speed made two free throws late in the fourth to send the game into overtime for the Trojans.
Nia Caver scored 48 points, a Tapestry Charter single-game record, in the Thunder Hawks' 72-61 victory over Royalton-Hartland. Caver broke the record of 42 she set Jan. 25 against Niagara Catholic.
On the move: Sweet Home AD Chris DeMarco confirmed to The Buffalo News that Rich Lowe has been recommended to fill the football coaching vacancy created by John Faller's retirement. Lowe is a physical education teacher in the district and has coached the Sweet Home JVs.
• In Section 5, Eddie Long is leaving his position at Bishop Kearney to become football coach at long-struggling Greece Olympia, where he was a star player before going on to become UConn's all-time leading rusher. Long was 45-39 during his tenure at Kearney, reaching the NYSPHSAA Class C semifinals last fall.
