Leading off today: The Alfred-Almond boys basketball team is one victory away from completing a worst-to-first story.

   The Eagles scored a 47-30 victory Wednesday against Fillmore in the Section 5 Class DD semifinals, setting up a trip to the championship game on Saturday vs. Genesee Valley (14-9), which pulled off a 71-63 upset of state No. 7 Batavia Notre Dame.

   Aaron Rygiel, who picked up three first-half fouls, was the key for A-A, finishing with 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

   Alfred-Almond, which has not won a sectional championship since the 1948-49 squad triumphed for the third time in four years, is 16-6 just one season after going 0-20.

   "I have been wanting this for those seniors that played last year," coach Brad Hoyt told The Evening Tribune "I’ve just been wanting those guys to just taste how much fun this is, and now they’re going to get a chance. I’m so happy, I just can’t help myself."

   Surprise times two: Upsets were the story of the Section 2 Class B boys basketball semifinals, so 11th-seeded Schuylerville will play fifth-seeded Broadalbin-Perth for the championship Saturday.

   Austin Bateman scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter and his jumper from the top of the key with 1.2 seconds left was the winner as Schuylerville (11-10) upset Cohoes (13-9), 49-48. Schuylerville trailed by 40-36 entering the fourth quarter.

   In the second game, Broadalbin-Perth (16-7) got 13 points from Justin Boyes to upend Fonda-Fultonville (19-4), ranked No. 17 by the New York State Sportswriters Association, 46-41.

   Working overtime: Senior forward Mary Grant's two free throws with :12 left were the only points of the second overtime to lift the South Kortright girls basketball team to a 56-54 Section 4 Class D semifinal victory over Edmeston.

   "She came through in the end, knocking those shots down with pressure," coach Josh Burroughs said after Grant (10 points) capped the Rams' 17-for-25 work on free throws. "But anybody on the foul line, we're confident they can score."

   Three to go: You have to go back to 1991 to find the last time anyone ran the table en route to a New York State Public High School Athletic Association hockey championship. Albany Academy went 27-0 that season, capping its perfect season with a large-school title in Utica.

   Greece Athena/Odyssey is three victories away from matching the feat. The Thunder is 24-0 following its 3-1 victory over Fairport on Sunday in the Section 5 finals and will play Ithaca on Saturday in the state Division I quarterfinals at SUNY Brockport.

   Thunder coach Dan Webb wasn't fixating on the unbeaten season following Sunday's victory, which avenged a double-overtime loss to the Red Raiders in the 2008 playoffs.

   "If we were 22-1 coming into this game, I'm sure Fairport would have been coming at us just as hard as if we were 23-0," he said. "That undefeated thing doesn't make much difference as far as they're concerned. They wanted to try to knock us off, just like it was through the playoffs and even toward the end of the regular season.

   "It makes us a little stronger. We're ready for this kind of play because everybody picks up their game for us."

   Athena/Odyssey has been ranked No. 1 in the state since Jan. 6. Sophomore Parker Bonis gets the bulk of the minutes in goal, posting a 1.03 goals-against average and five shutouts in 16 games. In front of him is a collection of 20 full-time skaters, though 99 of the club's 109 goals have come from just seven players.

   Riley Bourbonnais leads the way with 21 goals and 23 assists for 44 points, J.T. Stenglein has 19-14-33 and Greg

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Ryan has 14-23-37.

   "When we started out the year we pretty much knew we had one of our stronger teams," Webb said. "Most of the first half of the year we spent lot of time jockeying our lines around a little to see what chemistry would work the best. We felt any combination of the top six guys would work. We just wanted to see which combination would work best. About three quarters of the way through the season we decided we had what we wanted."

   Stenglein has been particularly effective for the last month and has come on strong since starting with one goal and five assists through five games.

   "In the middle of the season he decided he had not put in enough effort and that he wanted to work harder," Webb said. "He's become one of the hardest workers on the team and he's made a big improvement from within himself. On the backcheck he's catching people from behind, he's making smart plays and when he's taking the puck to the net he's got defenseman back on their heels because of his size and his speed."

   Championship weekend: The skiing and wrestling championships are already in the books, and this week kicks off a very busy three weeks of title meets across the state:
   

The annual NYSPHSAA indoor track championships will be held Saturday at Cornell University. The boys meet begins at 9 a.m. with relays semifinals and is followed by the girls meet at 2 p.m.

   The 600 meters race shapes up as the top girls event on the card with Hempstead's hard-charging Charlene Lipsey trying to hold off MacAuley's Phyllis Francis, Mount Vernon's Breanda Crump and Brie Roller of Lakeland Panas. All are regarded as national-caliber runners.

   Junior Alex Hatz of Fayetteville-Manlius, fresh off breaking Don Paige's 1975 sectional record by winning the 1,000 meters in 2:2.44 at Manley Field House, will be one of the top boys to watch.
   

The boys swimming championships are tomorrow and Saturday at the Nassau Aquatic Center in East Meadow. Mount Sinai senior Thomas Luchsinger has the fastest time in the state (1:37.72) in the 200-yard freestyle, making him a prime candidate to defend a championship, and also owns a dominating :49.54 in the 100 butterfly.
   

The boys and girls bowling tournament is being contested at Gates Bowl, just outside Rochester. Saturday's competition for school teams commences with three game sets at 9 a.m. On Sunday, the section all-star lineups swing into action with three-game sets at 9 a.m.

   Senior Nick Morrissey of West Seneca East will be back to defend his boys title. Morrissey averaged 242 for a six-game set at the 2008 tournament and 241.7 for his block last month in the Section 6 tournament. The West Seneca East team rolled a 6,406 score a year ago to place second to East Islip (6,452). The top returning girl is Nicole Parkhurst of Utica Proctor, who was third a year ago. The Proctor team qualified for states, led by Katie Szczesniak's 212.8 average at the Section 3 championships last month.

   Extra points: It's tough to tell whether he was speaking out of frustration, but Indian Lake-Long Lake boys basketball coach Jim Zullo told The Post-Star that Tuesday's 75-42 loss to Westport might be the finale in a 34-year career despite a 15-4 mark for the season. Zullo half-jokingly wondered if the school would want him back after a 33-point loss. "I’d fire my (butt)," he said. . . . Rome Catholic, 3-3 at the JV level last fall, will resume varsity football in 2009 after a three-year absence. AD Dennis Skibitski, 87-64-9 in 19 years, will return as coach. . . . Tomorrow's big local event: The 77th annual Aquinas Mission Bouts, featuring approximately 15 intramural boxing matches. A Little Irish team traveled to Cincinnati late last month for an annual card against Moeller High program.

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