Monday, Jan. 28, 2019: Girard reaches 4,000 career points in basketball

   Leading off today: Joe Girard III poured in 52 points Sunday in becoming the first basketball player in state history to amass 4,000 in his career.

   He reached the milestone with a three-point play late in the third quarter of a 78-74 victory over Amsterdam at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls. He began the day 29 points short of 4,000 and is the 14th player in U.S. high school history to accomplish the feat according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

   Girard started slowly in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000, making just four of his first 12 shots and finishing the opening half with 19 points. He connected for 16 in the third quarter and 17 more i the fourth.

   "I'm dead," he said afterward. "We had three games in five days. We had the senior ball last night until 12. So there has just been a lot going on this week."

   Girard averaged 50 points a game in his junior season and is averaging 48 this year.

   Unexpectedly easy: Albany Academy, ranked second in the state in Class A, cruised to a 67-44 victory over No. 1 Park School.

   Park was without injured star Noah Hutchins, who had 21 points and 11 assists Friday in an 84-68 victory over Lewiston-Porter.

   The Cadets opened the game with a 16-4 run and never led by less than six the rest of the way.

   August Mahoney (17 points), Andre Jackson (16) and Rob Brown (14) did the majority of the scoring damage for the winners.

   "This is another game that we progressed as a team and pushed us further toward the things we want," Jackson said. "It was definitely a good experience being out on that court and getting a win."

   44 in a row: Top-ranked Lake George won the battle of Class C unbeatens, defeating Hoosick Falls 55-30.

   Lake George has won 44 games in a row, tied for the 19th-longest streak in state history. (See list here.)

   Warriors center Chris Becker finished with a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds. He scored 14 of Lake George's first 20 points.

   Milestone: Kingston senior Brian Moore reached 1,000 career points and Tigers coach Ron Kelder earned his 300th career victory in a 62-40 triumph over North Rockland at SUNY New Paltz.

   Moore had 20 points and five assists.

   Kelder is now 300-160 in 23 seasons.

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   Boys hockey: Junior forward Matthew Orlowski scored twice and Joe Fronczak made 24 saves as St. Joseph's defeated Canisius 3-0.

   St. Joe's is ranked No. 1 and Canisius No. 6 in Division I in the most recent New York State Sportswriters Association ratings.

   Another award: North Rockland junior Katelyn Tuohy has been named Gatorade's New York female cross country runner of the year for the second straight season.

   She'll find out next month whether she has repeated as the national runner of the year, a likely certainty after another undefeated season.

   Tuohy was also named Gatorade's top female track & field athlete last spring and then its overall American female high school athlete at the conclusion of the school year.

   Good reading: The Buffalo News had an interesting feature last week on the Leonardo da Vinci boys basketball team, a college prep- aratory school located within D'Youville College fighting its way through a season in which the seven-player roster is badly overmatched on a nightly basis.

   According to the paper, da Vinci has lost 36 consecutive games since a 49-41 triumph over Lafayette on Feb. 4, 2016.

   "They're having fun. They're scrappy. They don't give up," said principal Greg Lodinsky. "I give them props for doing a good job whatever the outcome. I think it builds pride. I understand there is disappointment with the score, but I don't see it with them. I see a group that wanted a basketball team."

   The da Vinci squad is 0-9, including losses by scores of 100-7, 116-8 and 94-11. They have not scored more than 25 points in a game.

   More earlier: I blogged earlier in the day about the possibility of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association state hockey tournament being played with 15-minute periods after the regular season and sectionals are played with 17-minute periods.

   Extra points: Alex Kenyon is likely to contend for the state diving title this season, a neat trick for a guy whose school doesn't have a swim team. The Bloomfield sophomore tags along to meets with the Canandaigua team but does not count in the scoring.

   Kenyon posted a score of 614.80 during a mid-January meet to set a Bloomfield team and Canandaigua pool record. That puts him within range of the Section 5 record of 647.15 by Scott Lazeroff of Brighton in 2015.