Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018: Girard becomes overall state scoring leader

   Leading off today: Joe Girard III scored 45 points Tuesday night en route to becoming the leading boys or girls scorer in New York State high school basketball history.

   Girard, already the boys, leader, eclipsed the career mark of Caryn Schoff during a 74-71 victory against Scotia-Glenville. He stands at 3,587 points after passing Schoff's mark of 3,548 in her six-year career at St. Johnsville that concluded in 1995.

   Glens Falls continues its season Thursday in the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.

   More about Schoff: Caryn Schoff and her sister Wendi were a huge part of a dynasty, helping St. Johnsville to two NYSPHSAA and Federation championships, a 64-game winning streak and a 176-10 record over a span of seven seasons.

   As great as both were, they account for just a fraction of the points accumulated by a dynastic basketball family over the years beginning with their father. Phil Schoff played at Syracuse University alongside Dave Bing and Jim Boeheim after a thousand-point career of his own at St. Johnsville.

   Wendi Schoff joined the varsity as a seventh-grader when the team was led by cousin Lisa Schoff, who would finish her career with 1,956 points, and totaled 2,285 points for her six-season career.

   Caryn was next up and connected for 40 points 10 times in her career including a 51-point performance. She shared the Miss New York Basketball honor as a senior with future University of Tennessee and WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw from Christ the King.

   The sisters' brother Phil Jr. also reached 1,000 career points as did three others in the extended family.

   More girls basketball: New Hartford freshman Kaia Henderson went over 1,000 career points with 28 in a 67-57 victory over Rome Free Academy.

    • Buffalo Middle Early College sophomore Kenyah Martin packed the stat sheet with 22 points, 22 rebounds, 16 steals and seven assists in a 78-23 victory over Burgard.

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   More girls notes: Jeff Mlinar, who helps the NYSSWA in compiling the weekly rankings, says the injury big has done a number on a Section 4 team that was in line to contend on the state level in Class AA.

   Life was tough enough for Elmira, which has lost Kiara Fisher to a shoulder problem that requires surgery. But the Express is now without Morgan Gentile, another Division I prospect. Gentile suffered an ankle injury, but it likely isn't as serious as a lower leg injury that limited her during volleyball season.

   Road trip: I had no idea what a wild 26-hour stretch the Northstar boys basketball team endured as I watched them beat Leadership Academy on Saturday evening.

   The Knights, NYSPHSAA semifinalists and finalists in Class C the past two seasons, traveled to Cleveland on

Friday for what they thought would be an afternoon game ahead of the Cavaliers' NBA contest vs. the Milwaukee Bucks.

   Upon arriving, however, the learned their game against Orchard Park was being pushed back to after the pro game -- making it a 10:30 p.m. tipoff. Northstar, which was moved up to Class A by Section 5 this year, beat the Quakers 81-59 and then boarded the bus for the trip home. They rolled into town at 5 a.m.

   Northstar returned to the court just 5 hours later on Saturday night and beat state-ranked Leadership Academy.

   Good observation: Maurice Wingate of NYCHoops.net singled out some boys teams this week as deserving credit for stepping up to play more challenging schedules than their league obligations require.

   Among them is Scarsdale, which is off to an 8-0 start under new coach Joe Amelio, who has scheduled Class AA Holy Cross and St. Anthony's.

   The Journal News wrote about Scarsdale this week, noting that the success has come with a virtually all new lineup due to graduation.

   "We're playing like nobody can stop us right now," junior Jayshen Saigal said. "Obviously, we have to make sure not to get cocky. I don't think that's going to be a problem with this team. I think we're going to stay humble and keep coming to practice and playing hard."