Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017: Christ the King boys squeak past L.I. Lutheran

   Leading off today: Two days after their respective girls teams played a thriller that came down to the final buzzer, the Christ the King and Long Island Lutheran boys met on the court Monday in another nail-biter. And Christ the King made it a sweep, earning a 57-55 victory courtesy of two free throws by junior Kofi Cockburn with 4.8 seconds to play.

   LuHi began the week ranked third and the Royals seventh in Class AA according to the New York State Sportswriters Association. (Latest rankings here.)

   Sophomore Quaran McPherson led the winners with 16 points. Moussa Cisse, a 6-foot-10 freshman, had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and the 6-foot-11 Cockburn chipped in with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Junior Etienne paced LuHi with with 16 points, two more than Frankie Policelli.

   Down four with :52.6 to go, CK's Cockburn drew the fifth foul on Policelli and made both free throws. Following a LuHi miss, CK's Ryan Myers was also fouled and knocked down his two free throws. After the Crusaders inbounded, gathered in a loose ball leading to his being fouled.

   More boys basketball: Being 6-foot-8 indisputably has its advantages in Class C basketball. But at the end of the day, you still have to get the job done.

   Owen Kennedy met that obligation -- and then some. Senior center Owen Kennedy finished with 31 points and 33 rebounds as Cooperstown defeated Unadilla Valley 64-52. Kennedy's wok including 17 offensive rebounds.

   "Owen was picking up every miss," Cooperstown coach David Bertram said.

Got an update from @Coophoop33 this morning. Owen Kennedy pulled down 33 rebounds last night in the Hawkeyes win over UV. A new single game school record. Congrats! @AthleticsCcs ??

— Nate Lull (@NateLull) December 19, 2017

   More boys basketball: In a big North Country confrontation, Matt Rector recorded career highs of 20 points and 14 rebounds in sparking Ogdensburg Free Academy to a 63-45 win over Canton. Mecci Johnson scored 16 points off the bench for the unbeaten Blue Devils.

    • The five No. 1 teams remain unchanged in the new NYSSWA rankings. Our regional rankings for New York City and Long Island are also updated.

   Roy C. Ketcham mourns: Wappingers School District staff and students were stunned Monday when Julia Eurillo died, apparently of a heart attack, Wappingers Superintendent Jose Carrion told the Poughkeepsie Journal. She was 47.

   Eurillo worked in a variety of roles in the district over 17 years. She was a special education teacher at Roy C. Ketcham as well as the school's head cheerleading coach, a track and field coach and an announcer at other sporting events. She had previously worked at John Jay High School in East Fishkill.

ADVERTISEMENT

   "She wore so many hats for our high schools," Carrion said. "She did a lot for our athletic department and she was a passionate and caring teacher."

   New Hackensack Fire Chief Tony Marquez commended Eurillo for being an excellent volunteer in that department.

   "She was an awesome firefighter," Marquez said. "She helped everyone, touched everyone in this county. It's a sad day."

   Plea in the works: A former Glens Falls basketball star arrested over the summer with more than a pound of cocaine is expected to plead guilty on Jan. 10, The Post-Star reported.

   Gordon D. "Denny" Wilhelm IV is scheduled to appear before Warren County Judge John Hall, the Warren County court calendar shows. He would plead guilty to a felony drug count, but the details of the plea agreement were not released Monday, but the paper reported initial plea discussions had included a proposed sentence of more than 10 years in prison.

   He faces a mandatory state prison sentence if convicted of a felony, based on a conviction from a 2011 felony heroin case in Warren County.

   Wilhelm was a Class A all-state basketball selection in 2006 and '07 while playing alongside Jimmer Fredette. The 2007 team lost the NYSPHSAA Class A final to Peekskill.

   Coming up: Wednesday marks the start of the three-day, early-signing period in football for high school seniors. The New York State Sportswriters Association counts 30 players who have made verbal commitments to accept scholarships to plat at Football Bowl Subdivision schools and would be candidates to formalize their commitments this week.

   I feel his pain: Neil Kerr and I have had variations of this conversation on the phone or via email too many times to count over the years, and the subject reared its head again Sunday night: The Internet sure makes it easier to gather high school sports information ... except when the Internet's cannibalization of the newspaper industry leads to downsizing that leaves no one to do old-fashioned work such as compiling weekly basketball standings.

   Are there newspapers or newspaper-operated websites out there that still publish standings? A precious few put weekly polls or staff-generated rankings online, which sometimes helps as we fill coverage gaps, but unearthing some teams' records for our weekly state rankings can be maddening.