Monday, Feb. 25, 2019: Brentwood dethrones Half Hollow Hills East

   Leading off today: Junior forward Bryce Harris twice gave Brentwood late fourth-quarter leads with 3-point baskets and finished with 13 points as the Indians edged two-time defending champion Half Hollow Hills East 63-56 on Sunday for the Section 11 boys Class AA basketball championship.

   Half Hollow Hills East had ended ninth-ranked Brentwood's season the past two years.

   "This is redemption," Harris said, "and it feels good."

   Jordan Riley had 18 points and 11 rebounds, guard Kenny Lazo added 15 points and Alan Houston had 12 for Brentwood.

   Shane Dean (17 points) hit a 3-pointer with 1:17 left in the third quarter to give 24th-ranked HHHE a 44-35 lead and Sam Russo made another for a 47-38 advantage. But the Thunderbirds would miss seven fourth-quarter free throws, including the front ends of two one-and-ones, and the first Harr is basket of the final stanza tied the game at 52.

   "Tough times don't last; tough people do," Brentwood coach Anthony Jimenez said. "You got to see that."

   Corcoran toppled: Jaylen Warmack scored 20 first-half points to lead Utica Notre Dame to a 50-44 upset of No. 12 Syracuse Corcoran in the Section 3 Class AA semifinals.

   Warmack finished with 30 points to lead all scorers, while Corcoran's Daimarr Miller scored 27.

   More boys basketball: Louisville recruit Aidan Igiehon scored a game-high 14 points and added 17 rebounds and three blocks to propel Lawrence Woodmere Academy past Dalton 51-30 in the NYSAIS Class B championship in the Bronx.

   "In the beginning of the season I knew I had to be a leader and lead these guys," the 6-foot-10 Igiehon said. "This is only a temporary stop. Our main goal is upstate. We are excited right now, but we are still hungry."

   The Tigers will head to Glens Falls in a month as the NYSAIS Class B rep in the Federation tournament.

   Dry spell over: Suffern ended a span of five seasons without a Section 1 hockey title by defeating Mamaroneck 4-1 for the Division I championship.

   "It felt like we were cursed and we just broke it," defenseman Jared Marder said. "It's just a great feeling. We made our senior season one to remember."

   Suffern, top-ranked in the state by the New York State Sportswriters Association, is unbeaten in its past 20 games.

   Mike Halper made 19 saves in goal for the winners.

    • Senior goalie Eric Sasimovich made 29 saves as No. 15 John Jay Cross River downed fifth-ranked Pelham 5-1 for the Section 1 Division II trophy.

   John Jay and Pelham have combined to win the sectional title every year since 2010.

   John Jay advances to next weekend's NYSPHSAA quarterfinals and will meet the loser of the Section 6 final between West Seneca West and Grand Island.

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   Bethlehem repeats: Junior Mike Bievenue's 50th goal of the season, just 22 seconds into the game, started Bethlehem on its way to a 4-2 victory over Shenendehowa for the Section 2 hockey championship.

   Bievenue later added his 51st and 52nd goals in a game in which the Eagles never trailed.

   "You can't stop Mike Bievenue. All season long you can't stop him," Bethlehem coach Dylan Lappe said. "If he's got his wheels going, he's going to take off around you and it showed."

   The teams were playing their second game in two days. Shenendehowa had won the regular-season meeting in December.

   Schedule changes: With hurricane-force winds blasting through Western New York and the Finger Lakes, hockey finals were pushed back a day to Monday at KeyBank Center.

2019 NYSPHSAA boys hockey brackets 2019 NYSPHSAA boys basketball brackets 2019 NYSPHSAA girls basketball brackets 2019 N.Y. wrestling results (PDF)

   The tripleheader of the two Section 6 finals and the Monsignor Martin Niagara Cup will begin at 4:25 p.m.

   The girls WNY Federation final between Frontier/Lake Shore/Orchard Park and Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew was also postponed. A new date had not been announced as of Sunday night.

   Speaking of hockey: Melissa Brawdy has carved out a niche the past four years with her IcingTheFed.com website and multiple social media accounts dedicated to covering hockey in Western New York.

   Brawdy broke the news to fans last week that she will be shutting down Icing The Fed next month, to the disappointment of high school hockey fans. I caught up to her last week and wrote about Brawdy and how the website came to be in my weekly column for PressConnects.com.

   More reading: The Democrat and Chronicle had an interesting feature last week on Nick Parker, a team manager specializing in analytics for the Fairport boys basketball team.

   Parker, 18, breaks down game film, calculates the plus-minus of each lineup combination and records every shot taken by the Red Raiders to find their hot and cold spots.

   He broke down each shooting spot for each guy and we learned that one guy shot 62 percent from the left corner 3, but from the right corner 3 he was only 31 percent," coach Scott Fitch said. "All of sudden when we run plays, we're trying to get him to his hot spot.

   "Then there was another guy that was shooting 38 percent from 3 and like 60 percent from layups, but in the mid-range he was only shooting 12 percent. So, now that's not a good shot for us and I think (Parker's) impacted our whole season because of moments like that."

   Fitch, a member of the USA Basketball coaching staff, believes there's a place in a Division I program for Parker.

   "My favorite moments are when I pull guys aside and I'll suggest something to them," parker said. "I'll tell them what they could be doing better ... or 'You should be here, not here.' When they take that information and use it, it's really fulfilling to see them succeed from that."

   Brackets: I've roughed out brackets for the NYSPHSAA boys basketball and ice hockey tournaments and will be the same for girls basketball shortly, followed by plugging in teams that have already qualified.