Tuesday, March 12, 2019: Girard, Griffin earn top BCANY basketball awards

   Leading off today: Two players with stellar careers capped off by big senior seasons have earned the state's top honors from the Basketball Coaches Association of New York.

   Glens Falls guard Joe Girard III has been selected Mr. New York Basketball and Ossining's Aubrey Griffin has been selected Miss New York Basketball, BCANY announced Tuesday morning.

   Girard is the most written about and closely followed high school athlete in the state thus far this century. The career 4,000-point scorer led Glens Falls to another Section 2 championship this winter and a place in next weekend's New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class B semifinals.

   Girard, who has committed to ontine his bsketball career at Syracuse University, has also quarterbacked the Indians' football team to two state championships in three seasons.

   He averaged 50 points a game as a junior and is averaging over 49 a game as a senior.

   Griffin had a superb freshman season and then lost her entire sophomore year to a knee injury. She roared back the past two seasons to help Ossining remain one of the top programs in the state as well as a regional power in the Northeast.

   She is averaging better than 28 points and seven rebounds a game heading into this weekend's NYSPHSAA Class AA semifinals. Her career average is 26 points a game.

   Griffin committed to UConn in the fall, following in the footsteps of the Pride's two previous Miss New York Basketball honorees -- Saniya Chong in 2013 and Andra Espinoza-Hunter, a co-recipient in 2017.

   Already a McDonald's All-American, she was selected to the 2019 WBCA High School Coaches' All-America team on Monday.

   The BCANY award winners are selected in voting by BCANY and media members followed by BCANY committee deliberations.

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   Half Hollow Hills East star Savion Lewis was selected Mr. New York Basketball last season. Jordan Nixon of The Mary Louis Academy was selected Miss New York Basketball.

   On the move: Watertown High is moving its football program from Section 3 to Section 10's Northern Athletic Conference for the start of the 2019 season as part of a two-year arrangement.

   The Class A football team's move does not affect Watertown in its other sports.

   Watertown previous competed in Section 10 between 1986 and 2000 where they went 97-28. The Cyclones' last winning season was a 6-3 mark in 2011. They are 12-44 in seven seasons since.

   "The competition is a little bit more equitable for us, we'll see a little bit more success," AD George Emrich. "Hopefully more students will come out for football."

   Watertown's arrival will give the NAC an eight-team league, making for an easy round-robin schedule.

   "The move, it just brings more scheduling certainty," coach Kyle Lalonde said. "We'll know exactly who we're going to play."

    • The paper reported it is still chasing details, but The Daily News in Batavia reported that LeRoy could exit the Livingston County Athletic Association in favor of joining the Genesee Region Athletic Association.

   With Section 5's move to federation-style football scheduling making league membership in that sport moot, LeRoy administrators reportedly have concerns about a potential move to the Living County League's Division I in other sports.

   The paper reported LeRoy administrators had no comment.