Leading off today: I don't think I've given Wings Academy more than a mention in passing all season long, but it's clearly time to pay attention to their boys basketball team, ranked fourth in the state by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   Justin Jenkins, fresh off a four-game benching for violations of team rules, scoring a game-high 24 Saturday as the top-seeded Wings topped John F. Kennedy 73-54 for their second straight Bronx borough title and fourth in five years. Andy Fall chipped in with 15 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks.

   Jenkins began the season as a starter and moved into a sixth-man role when senior Deonte Houston returned from an injury. He was handling the role well before being disciplined for some missed practices and late arrivals at school.

   "I look up to the seniors, they're my close friends and I wasn't going to let them down," he told The New York Post. "I just came in there, took some open shots, saw a few open gaps and got to the basket. It's [my] regular role to come in and score."

   PSAL penalty: The PSAL suspended Abraham Lincoln forward Kamari Murphy for two games for throwing a punch late in a victory over South Shore in the Brooklyn borough semifinals last week.

   The Railsplitters didn't need him in a 78-61 win Saturday over Thomas Jefferson for the Brooklyn borough championship at CCNY. Senior Shaquille Stokes finished with 23 points and eight assists, and freshman Isaiah Whitehead added 15 points.

   Lincoln, ranked fifth in the state, faces St. Raymond today in the Primetime Shootout at Kean University in New Jersey. Jefferson played in that event Friday and scored a 71-69 victory over Plainfield (N.J.) on a buzzer-beating basket by Davontay Grace.    Murphy's league suspension will continue through Lincoln's PSAL Class AA playoff opener, though he's eligible to suit up vs. St. Raymond.

   Long wait is over: Tappan Zee downed North Rockland 50-47 for its eighth straight boys basketball victory, giving the Dutchmen (14-4) top Rockland County honors for the first time since 1950. Earlier in the week they wrapped up their first league crown in two decades.

   Down to the wire: Boys basketball coach Kevin Bach's record stands at 299-204 in 25 seasons, the last six at Wallkill.

   "It's a testament to loving what you do, being a long-timer," Bach, 60, told The Times Herald-Record. "Teaching, it becomes part of you, you just love the interaction with the kids, the other coaches. My goal has always been to have a better team at the end of the season than you did at the beginning."

   Bach retired in June after 31 years as a Wallkill guidance counselor. He previously coached at Burke Catholic, going 253-133 with three Section 9 championships. He said he's been informed by superintendent William Hecht that this will be his final season, though Hecht did not specifically say that to the newspaper.

   If this is the end of the line, Bach has two shots left at No. 300: The Mid-Hudson Athletic League semifinals and the Section 9 tournament.

   Big East-bound: Nazareth 6-footer Bra'Shey Ali has made it all the way back from the foot injury (freshman year) and torn ACL (sophomore) that threatened to derail her basketball career. Confirmation came Friday when she committed to West Virginia over Rutgers, Louisville and Kentucky.

   “They just always were calling me, checking on me,” the 6-foot Ali said of the Mountaineers coaches. “Like every day they would call the school and make sure I was doing well in class. It seemed like they cared the most.”

Road To Glens Falls boys hoops site

   “They need athletic wings,” Nazareth coach Apache Paschall told The New York Post. “I think if she keeps getting stronger that she can come back to the promise she had as a freshman."

   On the roster: U.S. Under-17 men’s national soccer coach Wilmer Cabrera included Aquinas midfielder Jordan Allen on his 20-player roster for the 2011 CONCACAF U-17 Championship in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Allen has been part of the USSF residency program since last month.

   The U.S. opens vs. Cuba on Monday and then plays Friday vs. Panama. The top two teams in that three-nation group advance to the quarterfinals.

   Mickey D or Mickey Mouse? Austin Burton of Dime Magazine took some rips at the McDonald's All-American Basketball Team selection process, raising issues that feed into the feeling that the fast-food chain should consider sticking to hamburgers and fries rather than centers and guards.

   I've been wary of the composition of the selection committee for awhile because none of the more 50 people doing the initial nominations seems to have meaningful connections to upstate New York. Year after year, dozens of players

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from within a 75-mile radius of New York City make the initial cut while typically no more three or so from upstate get mentioned.

   Burton says what some of us were already thinking: The McDonald’s committee seems to care more about which college a player will attend than what they do on the court. Given the distribution of Division I programs across the map, it also leads to a perception of East Coast bias.

   Only two of this year's 24 boys picks are from the left end of the country, and one of them (Myck Kabongo) came to Nevada by way of New Jersey by way of Canada. No Pac-10 recruits were selected to play in next month's game in Chicago, and the West roster includes Austin Rivers from Florida, Adonis Thomas from Tennessee and Khem Birch from that noted Western plains state of Massachusetts.