Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017: NYC basketball legend Connie Hawkins dies

   Leading off today: Several stories Saturday morning featured the quote that most eloquently reminded us of the greatest attribute in Connie Hawkins' game -- his disregard for the laws of gravity.

   "Someone said if I didn't break them, I was slow to obey them," Hawkins once said.

   Hawkins, a playground legend who rates a first-team spot on any credible list of the greatest basketball talents ever to come out of New York City, died Friday at the age of 75.

   "The Hawk" rose from the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant to become a four-time NBA All-Star and earn a place in the basketball Hall of Fame.

   Hawkins led Brooklyn's Boys High to back-to-back PSAL championships in 1959 and '60. He averaged 25 points as a senior but never made it to college after being linked to -- but never charged -- a point-shaving scandal in New York. He bounced from the American Basketball League to the Harlem Globetrotters to the American Basketball Association before being allowed to join the expansion Phoenix Suns in the NBA at age 27.

   Short of players: Injury-depleted Oswego forfeited Friday's home football game against Carthage. The Buccaneers dropped to 0-6 in their return to varsity status after fielding only a JV team last fall.

   Following up: The unidentified Geneseo student accused of providing teammates with Oxycontin before a football game last month has been charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a Class A misdemeanor, Geneseo Police Chief Eric Osganian said.

   The 16-year-old reportedly took the prescription drug from his parent without the parent's knowledge.

   The student is scheduled to appear in Geneseo Village Court on Tuesday.

   Milestone: Minisink Valley volleyball coach Ellen Lain picked up career win No. 300 on Thursday with a 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-15 victory over Goshen.

   Lain is in her 22nd season with a record of 300-94.

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   Female standout in football: Calling it eight-man football probably doesn't cut it anymore now that Julietta Ford has broken the gender barrier in a big way.

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

   Ford, in her third year in the sport and an all-state basketball player bound for the University at Albany as well as a state-meet competitor in the high jump, is a two-way starter for Cooperstown, one of schools helping revive eight-man (sorry, Julietta!) football in New York this season.

   "I like to play every sport that I can, and I thought it would be fun," she told Syracuse.com. "I'm kind of aggressive, so I thought it would work."

   The 6-foot-2 receiver/cornerback made her first career interception last week in a 22-8 loss at Seton Catholic.    "She's no joke as an athlete," basketball coach Mike Niles said. "She could probably do anything she chooses."

   Extra points: Tyson Etienne, a 6-foot-2 point guard out of New Jersey is spending his junior year at Long Island Lutheran. He reportedly already has offers from Illinois, Marquette, Temple, UMass and several mid-majors.

   Senior John Lombardi Jr., a promising football and lacrosse player at Aquinas and Irondequoit before transferring to The Salisbury School in Connecticut, has switched his commitment in lacrosse from the University of Michigan to Cornell. The attackman/midfielder had been expected to be a cornerstone of the Wolverines' incoming class.