Leading off today: Mount Vernon recovered from a 14-point deficit with under six minutes to go and beat Paterson (N.J.) Catholic, 66-60, yesterday in the Nike Super Six boys basketball event at Madison Square Garden.
Sherrod Wright scored 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and Kevin Jones contributed 25 points, 19 rebounds and four blocked shots for Mount Vernon.
"We kept on believing that if we played hard, we'd be able to pull it out," Wright told The Journal News. "I think it motivated everyone. It started with defense and it led to us coming together on offense."
Mount Vernon started the second half in a 2-for-10 shooting slump and fell behind by 15 points. The score was 54-40 early in the fourth quarter before Jones hit a jumper and followed up by stealing the inbounds pass and nailing a three-pointer.
A second Jones steal-and-score off an inbounds pass cut the deficit to 56-54 with 3:17 to go. A Wright three-pointer gave the two-time defending NYSPHSAA Class AA champs a 62-60 lead.
More Nike Super Six: Rice and St. Raymond lost their games against New Jersey opponents at the Garden.
A day after downing previously unbeaten St. Raymond in overtime, Rice, dropped a 55-52 game to St. Benedict's. St. Raymond lost to Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick, 64-56.
Rice had rallied from eight points down to tie the game with 1:43 to play before Samardo Samuels (14 points, 13 rebounds), a 6-foot-9 forward heading to Louisville, closed it out with a three-point play with :29.4 left.
After the St. Raymond game, St. Patrick junior Dexter Strickland committed to North Carolina. Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams attended the contest.
We messed up: Our girls Class D basketball rankings contain a big-time boo-boo. We somehow charged Sherman with a loss than never happened and demoted the Wildcats from first to fourth in the current ratings.
Sherman is 11-0 following its victory over Pine Valley on Friday, and we'll get the rankings cleaned up when we publish the new list mid-week.
More girls basketball: The Times Union followed up on Courtney Galuski's huge game and reports that her 15