Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018: Liverpool survives injury, two overtimes

   Leading off today: Liverpool lost star player Charles Pride to a first-quarter ankle injury, gave back all of a 14-point lead in the third quarter and still managed to pull out an 83-81 win in a double-overtime boys basketball game vs. Syracuse Henninger on Friday.

   Liverpool, ranked seventh in Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association, had routed Henninger by 23 points last month.

   Senior Alan Willmes Jr. led the winners with 31 points and forward Naz Johnson added 19, including a dunk and a 10-foot floater late in the first OT.

   Henninger nearly won it in regulation as Jadan Graves (24 points) narrowly missed at the buzzer with the game tied at 63. The Black Knights led 71-67 before Liverpool's Jake Piseno hit a 3-pointer with :39 left in the first OT and Johnson took over, including the floater with :05 to go to make it 74-74.

   Willmes scored six of Liverpool's nine points in the second overtime to help Liverpool improve to 13-0.

   "Obviously when you lose a guy like Charles, you're out of sync a little bit," Liverpool coach Ryan Blackwell said. "We had to figure ourselves out right away."

   Game disrupted: An altercation broke out during the third quarter of Glens Falls' 104-65 boys basketball win over Hudson Falls, resulting in additional police officers being called to the scene.

   The melee started after a player was shoved underneath Hudson Falls' basket, The Post-Star reported. At one point, players, coaches and a police officer were piled together. A referee was pushed to the floor and some parents and fans made their way onto the court.

   Glens Falls police Sgt. Jarred Smith said there were no arrests made.

   Coming off an 89-80 loss to Gloversville a night earlier, the Indians rose Joe Girard III's 58 points to their 12th win in 14 games. Girard made seven 3-pointers and all 25 of his free throws.

   In the process, Girard became the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's all-time leading boys basketball scorer. The junior stands at 2,854 points and moved past Ryan Creighton's mark of 2,799 for Greenport from 2004-09. The junior could be just two games away from breaking the overall state record of 2,946 of current NBA player Lance Stephenson from Abraham Lincoln in the PSAL.

   More boys basketball: Senior Alan Griffin had 23 points, eight rebounds and four blocks for No. 6 Archbishop Stepinac in a 78-74 win over No. 2 Cardinal Hayes as state-ranked CHSAA powers got together.

   Sophomore R.J. Davis added 21 points, most of it on 17-of-19 shooting at the free-throw line. The Crusaders finished 33-for-41 at the line.

   "After this win, it proves we can be a top team in the Catholic league," Davis said.

    • In a Class A showdown involving Pittsford schools, Mendon knocked off 10th-ranked Sutherland 68-63 in overtime for its 10th straight victory. Senior Matt Powers paced the Vikings with 20 points.

   Josh Rosen scored Sutherland's final nine points in regulation as the Knights rallied from eight down with 1:30 to go to force overtime.

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   Boys hockey: Grand Island made its case for a state Division II ranking by rolling past No. 9 West Seneca East 5-2. Anthony Leone scored what proved to be the game-winner during a four-goal second period for Grand Island, which surrendered a pair of goals in the contest's first four minutes.

   Thomas Cecere had two goals for the Vikings and Parker Morrow had three assists.

    • In Division I action, No. 1 Williamsville North edged No. 9 St. Joe's 3-1 as Brett Sardinia and Andrew Bruno each had a goal and an assist for the Spartans. Reily Moyer made 27 saves to earn the win in goal.

   Leaving on a win and a win and a ...: McDonogh School, a Maryland girls lacrosse powerhouse, will have a new coach this spring when it attempts to add on to a winning streak that has extended to 177 games over nine seasons.

   Chris Robinson, the program's head coach for 14 seasons, announced his departure this week to focus on building the National Girls Lacrosse League.

   "It's a very pivotal year for the development of the league and the ultimate goal of it is to kind of mirror a bit of what the Little League World Series is to baseball and having league competition under one umbrella and eventually qualifying out of your region into a national championship format," he said. "There's nothing else like it in lacrosse. The youth lacrosse throughout the country is very disjointed and we figured this would be a great opportunity for the young ladies, so it's a huge project and we feel it's really in a pivotal year to make that happen."

   Extra points: Jim Schiltz, who joined The Daily Gazette staff in 1985, will receive the Hunter Low Media Award given to an outstanding high school football writer at the New York State High School Football Coaches Association's annual awards banquet and dinner Feb. 9.