Leading off today: You can just go ahead and cancel the rest of the high school sports year. We have our winner for the most inspiring performance of the year, an exhibition of grace under pressure that's likely to go unmatched for quite some time.
Luke Houston's 13-point performance Thursday in Pearl River's overtime victory was about much more than basketball. The sophomore guard, the son of a legendary player, drained his first three shots -- two of them from beyond the arc -- while making his first varsity start mere hours after the burial of his mother, Liz, who died last weekend at the age of 44 from complications of scleroderma, a chronic autoimmune illness.
Luke's dad, Kevin -- an NCAA Division I scoring champion in 1987 while at West Point -- and uncle, Jerry Jr., played for Pearl River, and Jerry Jr. is now the varsity coach (assisted by his father). Liz cheered there in her younger days and witnessed dozens if not hundreds of games in the Pearl River gym.
With one game already having been postponed last week, Pearl River turned down an offer from Hastings coach Dennis Hurley to reschedule Thursday's game. It turned out to be a great decision for reasons beyond the 69-66 final score.
Michael Kay gave it an extensive mention Friday on his ESPN radio show, and The Journal News' Bob Baird recounted the performance this morning.
Rice upends CTK: James Stukes scored 18 points and Jonathan Williams added 16 yesterday as Rice, ranked sixth in Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association, defeated No. 4 Christ The King, 71-58.
"It was a major statement game," Miami-bound senior forward Durand Scott told The Daily News after chipping in with 11 points. "That showed we own the Catholic side. We've just got to go and get the public side."
With Rice trailing 48-45 to start the fourth quarter, Scott forced costly turnovers that spaked a 9-1 Rice run to take the lead for good.
She's at it again: Lancaster junior Melissa Kurzdorfer has set yet another New York state class record in the indoor shot put, this time throwing 47-9 to finish second the Dartmouth Relays.
Kurzdorfer's progression of records began with 37-3.75 as a seventh-grader, 40-2 in eighth grade and 45-5.5 in ninth grade. She put the exclamation mark on her sophomore season with a 46-6.75 effort last March at Section 6's state qualifier.
Next up? Grand Island's Stacey Schroeder holds the overall record of 48-3 as a senior in 1992.
Julie Labonte of St. Justine in Quebec posted the winning throw of 51-5 at Dartmouth.
At the same meet, Kellenberg's sprint medley relay team of Colleen Meenan, Kelsey Gardner, Candace Gibson and
