Leading off today: A well-rounded team effort yesterday carried Jamesville-DeWitt to its second straight NYSPHSAA boys Class A basketball championship in Glens Falls.
Lamar Kearse scored 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting and keyed a critical fourth-quarter stretch to lead J-D to a 77-75 victory in overtime over Peekskill.
Steve Thompson’s 17-foot jumper with 51.1 seconds remaining in OT proved to be the margin, but Peekskill had three opportunities at the tying basket.
Brandon Triche was named tournament MVP after scoring 12 points in the final. Alshawn Hymes scored 21 points, and freshman center Dajuan Coleman put up 18 points and 18 rebounds.
"People think that as you get older, you don’t seem excited about this," Red Rams coach Bob McKenney told The Post-Standard. "It doesn’t get old. The expectations have been so high since Brandon was a freshman. They really wanted this. Both teams took each other’s best shot tonight. It felt like a heavyweight fight."
Dominating effort by NFA: Newburgh broke to a 16-6 lead after one quarter, built the lead to 24 points and breezed past Niagara Falls for the NYSPHSAA Class AA championship, 62-42.
"I knew this could happen," Newburgh guard Marcus Henderson, the tournament MVP, told the Times Herald-Record "I saw a group of young men, including myself, who wanted a championship and who were very talented."
Henderson overcame a 1-for-14 shooting night vs. Uniondale in the semifinals to post 11 points, four assists and four rebounds vs. Niagara Falls. Guard Damon Cousar has 20 points and 20 rebounds as 56 of the team's 62 points came from underclassmen.
Newburgh has a bye into the Federation Class AA final, where it will face Rice or Abraham Lincoln for the title Sunday at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
Coleman girls win: Point guard Taylor Leonard knocked down the game-winning three-pointer with :12.1 to go as Coleman Catholic edged Sherman for the girls NYSPHSAA Class D basketball crown, 39-36.
"I didn't know I was going to take the shot, but I had a good look," she told the Times Herald-Record. "So I shot it. I wasn't very confident when I let it go. But it went in. That was the biggest shot of my life."
Leonard's game-winner was her second three-pointer in the final minute, and she finished with a game-high 16 points plus three assists to earn tournament MVP honors.
She had spent three hours in an area hospital after being shaken up in Saturday's semifinals and complaining of nausea and dizziness.
