Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018: St. Anthony's edges Chaminade in L.I. final

   Leading off today: Jonathan Harewood finished with a game-high 22 points Tuesday as St. Anthony's edged Chaminade 63-60 in the Nassau-Suffolk boys CHSAA basketball final.

   Chaminade went on a 15-2 run for a 22-7 lead in the first quarter behind sophomore Michael O'Connell's 12 points.

   The Friars turned the tide in the second quarter, forcing seven turnovers and going on a 13-1 run.

   Chaminade senior Robert Connors hit his fourth 3-pointer with 2:58 left to give the Flyers a 57-50 lead, but St. Anthony's responded with a 10-0 run keyed by two baskets from Antonio Lopez for a 60-57 lead with 1:37 left.

    • St. A's next game will be against Park School on Saturday in the state Catholic High School Athletic Association Class A semifinals in New York City.

   Park advanced with a 62-54 triumph against Canisius for the Manhattan Cup championship in Western New York.

   Senior Brandon Smith scored 13 of his game-high 22 points in the first half and finished with four 3-pointers in six attempts for the winners.

   Close call: Willard Anderson drove to a layup with :03 left as second-ranked Buffalo East edged No. 6 Ellicottville 62-61 in a Section 6 Class D semifinal between two state-ranked squads.

   "Someone has to take over in that situation, and I took over," said Anderson, who finished with 37 points. "I didn't want to go home" for the season.

   Skiing wrap-up: Section 5 competitors top the field in the giant slalom as the NYSPHSAA alpine ski meet concluded at Bristol Mountain.

   Brighton's Noah Shinaman broke 59 seconds in both his runs and won the boys title in 1:56.97, comfortably ahead of Pittsford's Max Hopfinger (1:59.19). The girls champ was Victor's Katie Carrier in 2:03.02, who also finished atop the combined standings for the meet. She edged Logan Frederickson of Ellicottville (2:03.14) and Shannon Hughes of Pittsford (2:03.42) in the giant slalom.

   Combined with his second-place showing in Monday's slalom, Hopfinger won the boy combined title and helped Pittsford to a team championship.

   "Max was our best all year and helped propel us to county, sectional and state titles," Panthers coach Brandon Mauks said. "It was a pretty amazing year led by his amazing performance."

   Ellicottville won the girls team title.

   In nordic action at Gore Mountain, Lake Placid's boys won the relay. Kai Frantz, Mike Skutt and Scott Schutz completed nine kilometers in 21:00.3. The Queensbury trio of Baily Gengel, Emily Atamanchuk and Maggie Borgos triumphed in the girls relay in 25:22.8.

   The relay titles sewed up meet championships for Lake Placid and Queensbury.

   Girls basketball: Rye dethroned defending Section 1 Class A champion Somers 50-49 in the semifinals Tuesday on freshman Amanda Latkany's bucket off a long rebound with three-tenths of a second to play.

   "I got the ball, I threw it up, I watched it go in, and everything went silent," Latkany said. "It was unbelievable. It's unreal."

   After two Latkany free throws to tie, Somers junior Hannah Angelini had made a go-ahead free throw with :07.3 left to put the Tuskers ahead 49-48.

   Rye sophomore Teaghan Flaherty finished with a game-high 24 points, including a four-point play with a minute left.

   Yonkers moves forward: Yonkers has appointed longtime Gorton coach Dan DeMatteo to head the Force and New Rochelle assistant Vic Chiappa, a former Saunders head coach, to coach the Brave, the newly configured district-wide football teams.

ADVERTISEMENT

2018 NYSPHSAA boys hockey brackets 2018 NYSPHSAA boys basketball brackets 2018 N.Y. wrestling results (PDF)

   DeMatteo, the son of former Gorton coach Don DeMatteo, will run the program consisting of players from Gorton, Roosevelt, Yonkers Montessori and Yonkers. Chiappa's squad will draw players from Saunders, Lincoln, Riverside and Palisade Prep.

   The combined-teams approach is seen as a way to revive football in Yonkers, where budget issues and other challenges had left most of the individual school programs in shambles for a decade or longer.

   "This has been talked about for so long. I have to give all the credit and praise to my superintendent," DeMatteo said. "He took a risk, thought outside the box and just went with it. It just shows his desire to do what's best for the kids of Yonkers."

   Yonkers chose the team names to honor the city's police and fire departments. DeMatteo's Force will wear dark blue and gold to honor the police. Chiappa's Brave will don red and silver, colors inspired by the firemen.

   "This could be bigger than just about football games," DeMatteo said. "It's about mending relationships with the schools and the community."

   More football: Officials at Franklinville and Ellicottville will have to determine their path forward after Section 6 ruled that their combined football team cannot stay in Class D next fall.

   "The section looks at all teams that are combined and it's a dominance factor," sectional football chairman Ken Stoldt said. "The biggest point they look at is what they do in the league and in the section."

   Franklinville/Ellicottville has played in four straight Section 6 Class D finals and won it once.

   "And most of their games they've had a high differential in the points that they've won by," Stoldt said. "So the section committee felt that they had a strong dominance over the last few years, so they moved them up."

   Barring a successful appeal, the options are to play in Class C this fall or end the combined program, adding two programs to a suddenly smallish Class D in Western New York.

   A series of program consolidations combined with changes in the classification cutoffs leaves Section 6 with just four Class D programs for the time being.