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

three-point baskets for Cohoes in a 91-36 win over Schalmont last week tied a national record.

   The National Federation says the mark was set in 1998 by a Michigan scholastic player and was tied twice before Galuski also matched it.

   In a big Class D game Saturday, Amanda Toombs hit three three-pointers in the second half as Davenport rallied past host South Kortright, 46-43. Toombs scored 14 points and Samantha Meyerhoff had 13 points, 13 rebounds and six steals for Davenport (11-1).

   A change-up for Section 8 baseball: The Nassau County Athletic Council is changing baseball's divisional alignments from enrollment-based to a format that will attempt to rate teams and then group them by ability — much to the dismay of coaches who overwhelmingly oppose the idea.

   Newsday's Gregg Sarra wrote about it over the weekend and noted the 39-3 dissenting vote by the Nassau County Baseball Coaches Association, The coaches are concerned — and rightfully so — about finding playing time for young players who must be groomed to play big roles in subsequent seasons. Top teams will now have fewer mismatches on the schedule, limiting at-bats and innings pitched for players not in the starting lineup.

   At the other end of the spectrum, some teams that would previously have gone 6-14 are going to end up winning 10 or 11 games and bumping more talented teams from the higher leagues out of playoff berths.

   The section has gone to a similar format in some other sports, including basketball, but baseball coaches fear that the subtlities of their sport are being underestimated.

   "The regular season is now useless," Clarke coach Tom Abruscato told Sarra. "This decision has ruined the 2008 season. To predetermine who is good in the preseason is crazy. How does a committee know what type of pitching rotation we'll have?"

   Said North Shore coach Dom Gatti: "We have a council that feels it can create better competition by helping weak programs avoid strong programs. There's no secret to building a program. It's done in the offseason, with strong feeder programs, solid coaching and community involvement. What happened to hard work produces results? We were taught to work hard and focus to reach the next level. Now we have a culture that pre-empts hard work and competition through grouping philosophies. Maybe they should model programs after successful ones to reach goals."

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