Hello from what should be an outstanding tripleheader of boys basketball games at East High in Rochester. It's the RAP Invitational, an event named for the local AAU group the Rochester Area Players. Great lineup of games all weekend.
Today's Buffalo-area partipation begins with News No. 2 large schoolCanisius vs. No. 1 Section V large school Fairport at 5:15 p.m., followed by No. 1 large school Niagara Falls vs. No. 2 Section V large school Webster Schroeder at 7. Then it's No. 7 Bishop Timon-St. Jude against the host East Orientals at 8:45.
I'll have updates from games in the live blog below and I'll also be providing #preptalkscores updates on Twitter, which will also appear in the blog.
If you want to chime in from any of tonight's high school contests (of any sport) -- your tweets with the hashtag #preptalkscores will appear in the live blog as well.
Tonight's major matchup we'll be on hand for is No. 2 large schoolCanisius at No. 7 Bishop Timon-St. Jude at 7 p.m.
There should be the usual great crowd on hand and great atmosphere at Palano gym. It's also the start of quite the weekend for boys basketball, including for both of these teams. On Saturday, the Crusaders (vs. Fairport) and Timon (vs. Rochester East) will take on Section V powers at the RAP Invitational at East High in Rochester.
The RAP event begins tonight with Olean traveling to take on East High in a compelling matchup. Other key games tonight include McKinley vs. Middle Early College at ECC-City at 7 in Yale Cup I and Frontier at Williamsville North at 7:30 in ECIC I. In Yale Cup III, Lafayette heads to Olmsted at 6 p.m. in a battle for first place; at 7 p.m., second place in the Niagara Frontier League is on the line as North Tonawanda hosts Lockport.
I'll have updates from games in the live blog below and I'll also be providing #preptalkscores updates on Twitter, which will also appear in the blog.
If you want to chime in from any of tonight's high school contests (of any sport) -- your tweets with the hashtag #preptalkscores will appear in the live blog as well.
Every week during the basketball season a panel of voters participates in The News' large and small school boys basketball polls.
And every week we let you know, like the title says ... how The News voted.
This is just one ballot -- there are nine other voters in each poll. This week's News poll is available via the high school home page.
It's a Super Week, and we're not talking about Sunday's football game. As you'll see throughout the blog, there are several big-time games this week -- there's even one on Super Bowl Sunday that is worth a bit of hype.
1. Niagara Falls (10-1) [last week: 1] -- The 100-18 win over Kenmore East revived calls for the Niagara Frontier League to allow Falls to play as an independent. I've said they should have remained that way since the 2005 Federation championship team.
Bishop Timon-St. Jude senior Jordan Williams will try and walk on with the Niagara University men's basketball program.
Williams, a 6-foot-2 senior sharpshooter for the Tigers, committed to attend the school Tuesday night after a meeting with NU coach Joe Mihalics and his staff. That's according to an email I received from the Williams family today.
Williams, who was a first-team All-Western New York football player at wide receiver, chose the walk-on opportunity over offers to play football at the University at Albany, Hobart and Edinboro. Williams had 10 touchdown catches and 988 receiving yards his senior season.
Williams excelled for the Tigers' top 10 large school basketball team as well. He was Timon's leading scorer and capped his career with a 29-point effort in a loss to eventual champion Canisius in the Manhattan Cup semifinals at Canisius College. That game was witnessed by Niagara coach Mihalics.
According to Williams, he is being given the opportunity to walk on and then may be red-shirted.
"I had football offers on the table but ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to play Division I basketball," Williams said in a staement. "Now I’m going to get that opportunity and to be able to stay home to do it is exciting."
Note: The interviews in this video are, in order, with St. Mary's coach Dan Gill, St. Mary's senior Erik Simmons (not Canisius), St. Mary's senior Devin Redden (not Jake Cercone), Canisius coach Kyle Husband, Canisius senior Aaron White (not Erik Simmons), Canisius senior Matt Hart, and Bishop Timon-St. Jude coach Jim Palano. Our apologies regarding some technical errors on-screen.
Tonight I'll see two large school top 10 matchups: the Yale Cup I finale of McKinley at Riverside, then be at Bishop Timon-St. Jude as the Tigers host Canisius at 7:30 p.m.
While I'll have updates from those games, tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will also automatically show up in the live blog. So if you are a game tonight (including the ECIC II showdown of Williamsville South at Williamsville East) and you're updating via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating the game at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my play-by-play updating will come in the live blog.
Check out tonight's full schedule on our scoreboard page, where you can check back throughout the night for updated box scores and highlights.
See you out at the games, in the chat and on the tweeter. :-)
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Video reporter/producer Lauren Mariacher will be at Riverside and Timon and she (and possibly I) will stop by Medaille as OTC Middle College tries to complete an undefeated season against MST Seneca.
We'll have a PrepTalkTV episode posted as soon as possible. Photo-videographer John Hickey will be at Williamsville East.
Here's more, starting with video interviews with the victorious Lancers (classy job by St. Mary's coach Dan Gill starting his postgame comments by lauding longtime Timon coach/athletic director Jim Palano, who will be retiring at year's end):
I walked in at halftime and immediately saw that St. Mary's was ready to play in South Buffalo. Timon senior sharpshooter Kyle Kobis drained a jumper in the final seconds, but it left just enough time for Erik Simmons to speed to the other end and beat the buzzer for a tie at 33-33.
St. Mary's shot the lights out in the second half, but it's not like they just had a good shooting night, like one of those everything-they-were-throwing-up-went-in deals. They certainly shot the ball well, but most of the baskets came off good shots created by good passing and good decisions during good possessions. Some of it came off of alert, fundamental defense and/or rebounding.
The Lancers played with a confidence, an intelligence and a togetherness on both ends of the floor that was more than impressive. That play was rewarded with a big lead, and when Timon had Kobis and Jordan Williams hit big shots to give the Tigers a chance, St. Mary's responded.
Here's a recounting of the second half from my notebook & going over the game film (that means my iPhone video :-) ):
Third quarter
Redden hit a three-pointer (36-33). ... Ryan Winnicki hit a three off an Erik Simmons drive-and-kickout (39-37). ... Jake Denz got fouled on a three-pointer and sunk all three FTs (42-39). ... Simmons with a spectacular drive finished with an up-and-under scoop-to-the-hoop (44-39). ... Simmons again with a drive (46-39). ... Denz with a nice follow of a missed Redden drive (48-42). ... An offensive rebound by Paul Rath turned into a three by Nate Meyers (53-45). ... A Redden open three (56-47) was followed by pressure on the inbound that forced a Timon timeout with 1:25 left in the third. ... Denz with a nifty scoop vs. DeMilo Gibbs (58-49). ... Nicc Johnson with a nice-looking pop-up baseline jumper from the right side (60-51) -- that shot was the only one, to me, that was like, wow, they're hitting everything. There was some good defense and I believe the shot clock was running down, and he popped up and hit a tough jumper.
St. Mary's finished the third with a 60-53 lead after Kobis got the benefit of a goaltending call although -- from the way I saw it -- the shot never got above the rim. Kobis, Jordan Williams and Gibbs -- who played very well down low -- were effective on offense to keep Timon in the game.
Fourth quarter
St. Mary's did a great job defending Gibbs in the post, and they did it right from the start. There was some great help defense on Timon's first possession to earn the ball back for St. Mary's.
That was followed by two free throws by Redden after a good, aggressive drive to the basket (62-53). ... Johnson put on a fantastic drive with an off-the-glass finish (64-55). ... Denz made a great play to poke the ball free from a Timon dribbler, leading to a fast break in which Johnson's shot didn't fall but Denz was right there for the follow (66-55), prompting a Timon timeout with 5:48 to go.
Timon made it 66-60 with a little over five minutes to go by doing what they do: Kobis hit a three; Williams drove and scored. At this point, crunch time seemed to get both sides a little tight -- no field goals for about two minutes.
Denz made a nice play to pick off an entry pass for Gibbs, St. Mary's called a timeout with 3:15 left, and then ran a play which resulted in a Denz kickout to Simmons for a three (69-60).
This started a nice-back-and-forth (video below) that saw a Jordan Williams crossover-and-fadeaway (69-62), then a Redden jumper off a Meyers kickout (71-62), then a Zach Hayes follow of a missed Kobis drive (71-64) that prompted a Timon timoeut with 2:03 left.
Redden took advantage of some loose Timon defense to score on a drive (73-64); Kobis hit a three (73-67) to make it a two-possession game with about 1:20 to go. St. Mary's had some great ball movement against some aggressive defense that resulted in Denz finding Redden on the baseline but that was one shot that rimmed out for the Lancers. It was still a two-possession game with 1:00 left.
Big play here. Jordan Williams got the ball on the left wing, faked out his man and drove to the basket, and Denz came off his man (Gibbs) and drew a charging foul on Williams with 37.6 to go.
Now, I am the biggest anti-flopping basketball fan in the world. I think the beautiful game of basketball is soiled by "take a charge," which I like to call flopping, because that's what it is most of the time. That being said, and this is a testament to how difficult this call is to make for officials (maybe the most difficult in sports?), at first glance I thought this was a good call.
But when I went to the iPhone video, it was a block. Williams is leaving the floor as Denz slides over. Denz makes sure he gets a shoulder in Williams' way and falls to the floor. That's defense? That's not defense, but that's what passes for defense in basketball for many people these days. The offensive player blows by his defender, has a clear lane, and he's made his move to the basket truly before the help defender has established position.
The shot didn't fall, and it would have been two free throws, so Timon would certainly have had a better shot to win. I don't think they got robbed of the game whatsoever. St. Mary's went 0 for 2 down the stretch so Timon still had a shot to win. I definitely think St. Mary's deserved this one, big-time. And to be clear: This is not a knock on Denz by any means. He was fantastic on both ends, he did a great job fronting DeMillo in the fourth quarter, and the charge play was one of several smart ones he made during the game -- including not inbounding the ball on this final play.
Overall, a fantastic performance by St. Mary's. Timon may have underperformed a bit, but they were mostly outplayed by St. Mary's.
I'll be headed to another top 10 large school-small school matchup of the Monsignor Martin Association this evening when Canisius hosts Archbishop Walsh at 6:30 p.m.
I'll talk about that game, the St. Mary's game, Friday's Canisius at St. Joe's game, today's Prep Talk column, the basketball polls, the Power 10 and whatever else comes up during our video chat starting at 9 p.m.
With each year, the recruiting clock seems to be getting set earlier and earlier.
Bishop Timon-St. Jude sophomore Adam DiMillo, a lacrosse standout who is a member of the Class of 2014, verbally committed to the University of Maryland this week, Timon coach Mike Burke told The News.
DiMillo picked Maryland over other perennial powers in college lacrosse: Johns Hopkins, Syracuse, North Carolina and Notre Dame. He was a second-team All-Western New York pick as a freshman last season as Timon won the Monsignor Martin title and followed it up with a successful summer at recruiting events (check out more on those from Inside Lacrosse).
DiMillo also earned All-WNY honorable mention in football this past season; he was a key part in Timon's resurgence before a suffering a broken arm that ended his year in a Week Eight win against Canisius.
Keith McShea has covered high school sports at The News since his hiring in 1999. The 1995 University at Buffalo graduate and Long Island native (North Babylon Bulldogs) covers — and live blogs — everything from scrimmages to state championships & helps head The News' All-Western New York selections.
Lauren Nicole Mariacher joined The News in 2009 after graduating from the Columbia University School of Journalism. The Elma native and Iroquois graduate can usually be found on a sideline, capturing highlights for PrepTalkTV. She also hosts Prep Talk's weekly live show, with Keith McShea, as well as The News' live postgame Bills show — [BN]TheHuddle.
