Monday, March 27, 2017: SIA's 'Magnificent Seven' defends championship

   Leading off today: Staten Island Academy rode balanced scoring from its razor-thin roster to a 47-43 win over Jamesville-DeWitt on Sunday in Glens Falls for its second straight Federation girls Class A basketball championship.

   Junior center Elizabeth Althoff scored 14 points, senior forward Clare Mitchell had 13 and sophomore Emily LaPointe added 12. Althoff and Mitchell finished with 14 and 13 rebounds, respectively for SIA, which made it through the season with just seven players.

   "We all shared this together and we fed off each other," Mitchell told The Advance after the Tigers completed a Federation three-peat that began with the 2015 Class B championship.

   Trailing by six early in the fourth quarter, Jamesville-DeWitt scored five straight points to pull to within 39-38 with 4:52 to go before SIA's Megan McEwan stole a pass and converted a three-point play. After J-D's Meg Hair connected for a 3-pointer, found Althoff underneath for a basket to put the Tigers up 44-41 with 2:31 remaining.

   McEwan played the weekend on a torn ACL in her left knee, an injury suffered in the scrimmage vs. Long Island Lutheran a week earlier.

   "What Meg did didn't surprise me. That's her mentality," coach Nicole Sarcone said.

   The teams traded baskets, with LaPointe restoring a four-point lead on a layup with :30 left.

    • Mitchell's 25 points over the weekend in her scholastic swan song raised her career total to 2,075 points.

---

Nicole Sarcone capped her rookie year as a varsity head coach Sunday with a Federation championship. Afterward, she reflected upon a season played with a roster of just seven girls against a highly competitive regular-season schedule:

mp3 audio clip

---

   Seton Catholic romps: Binghamton Seton Catholic connected on a tournament-record 16 3-pointers on its way to an 83-43 rout of Bronx Aquinas in the girls Class B final.

   The Saints, who ended the season on a 26-game winning streak, got eight 3-pointers from Ava McCann (24 points) to tie the tournament single-game record. She finished with 13 3-pointers over two games, breaking the previous record of 10 by St. Dominic's Brittany Smith in 2010.

   "It's kind of indescribable in a way," McCann told the Press & Sun-Bulletin. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates finding me at the right time."

   Lexi Levy added 17 points and seven assists.

   Seton Catholic won its two weekend contests by a combined 86 points after winning twice by comfortable margins in the NYSPHSAA final four in Troy earlier in the month.

   With three minutes left in the second quarter, the lead against Aquinas was 41-11.

   Though Levy graduates in junior, Seton Catholic will return mush of the top of its roster intact next season.

   "I think we can come back strong," McCann said. "It's a bittersweet moment, because we're losing Lex, but you couldn't have asked for a better way to send her out."

   Albany Academy repeats: Albany Academy shot 51.1 percent on the way to a 76-46 win over Walton Campus for its second straight boys Class A title.

   "I was worried about a letdown after beating the No. 1 team (Irondequoit) in the state," Academy coach Brian Fruscio told The Times Union. "I was worried about our guys

2017 Federation schedule/results 2017 NYSPHSAA boys basketball brackets 2017 NYSPHSAA girls basketball brackets 2017 NYSPHSAA boys hockey brackets N.Y. indoor track championships: Boys | Girls 2017 N.Y. boys swim championships (PDF) 2017 N.Y. wrestling results (PDF)

thinking, 'We've got this.' They're kids. We don't have it. We had to come out and do the things we've done all year. I was thrilled they were able to do that."

   Hameir Wright repeated as the tournament MVP with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore August Mahoney led the Cadets with 19 points and finished his tournament 14-of-14 from the foul line. Will Bennett tallied 16 points and seven assists a day after finishing 0-for-6 from the field with seven turnovers in the 54-45 semifinal win over Irondequoit.

   Weekend wrapup: Total attendance for the three days at the Glens Falls Civic Center was 2,841, an all-time low for the years the event has been in that building. Still, it looked and sounded better than most of the years in which the Federation tournament was played in The Times Union Center echo chamber in Albany.

   Will Springstead of The Post-Star had a wrap-up column Sunday night with some solid thoughts.

   Wrestling: Four New York wrestlers won their divisions in the NHSCA High School Nationals in Virginia Beach, Va., over the weekend.

   NYSPHSAA champ Dylan Ryder of Half Hollow Hills West won the junior 106-pound final with an 11-4 decision over Jonathan Prata of California. He broke open a close match in the third period with an escape, takedown and back-point combination.

   Long Beach star Jacori Teemer, who owns four NYSPHSAA championships, won the junior 138 class with a 7-5 decision over Cole Matthews of Pennsylvania on the strength of a reversal an three back points in the second period.

   Tyler Bares earned the junior 170 title with a 14-4 decision over Luke McGonigal of Pennsylvania. The Ballston Spa standout with the help of two second-period takedowns.

   In the freshman 113-pound class, Zachary Redding of Eastport-South Manor prevailed over Justin McDougald of Niagara-Wheatfield 6-1 with a late takedown and back points.