Leading off today: We might have a new No. 1 this week in the New York State Sportswriters Association boys basketball rankings in Class AA, but it's awfully tough to tell just who that should be.
Rice got 29 points from UConn recruit Kemba Walker last night to knock reigning No. 1 St. Raymond from the ranks of the unbeaten with an 81-74 victory in overtime.
Both will be back in action today at Madison Square Garden in the Nike Super Six, pairing New York teams against highly regarded New Jersey competition. St. Raymond faces St. Patrick and Rice gets St. Benedict's, top-ranked nationally but reeling from a loss to Bryn Athyn, Pa., Academy of the New Church on Tuesday. The tripleheader kicks off at 11 a.m. with Mount Vernon playing Paterson Catholic.
Maybe — hopefully, perhaps — today's results will straighten out the issue of who deserves the top ranking in the state. St. Raymond has a loss to No. 5 Rice, which has a loss to No. 3 Christ The King, which (naturally) has a loss to St. Raymond.
Current No. 2 Holy Cross also owns a loss to St. Raymond, and No. 4 Brooklyn Lincoln has a clean record inside New York but two out-of-state setbacks by a total of five points.
Rice's victory over St. Raymond required a rally from a seven-point deficit in the third quarter, and Walker scored 10 in the fourth quarter but missed a jumper at the buzzer that would have broken a 65-65 tie. Walker had two points and two assists in OT.
Darryl Bryant led St. Raymond's with 27 points.
Tragedy in Canada: A van carrying a Canadian high school boys' basketball team collided with a truck yesterday near Bathurst, New Brunswick, killing seven players and the wife of the driver.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Derek Strong said the Bathurst High players, all between 15 and 18 years old, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their van, carrying 12 people, apparently crossed the center line and hit the tractor-trailer shortly after midnight.
The team was returning home to Bathurst from Moncton.
