So far, oh so good for the HV girls at Empires. The scholastic women dominated New York City 101-42 in its opener as Shelby Sferra of Ursuline led the way with 21 points. Four others were in double figures (Alaina Walker, Sophia Aleksandravicius, Gillian Felix and Alexandra Osborn-Jones).

For more on the ESGs log on to our blog.

Not only have I returned from sunny Saint Lucia boys and girls, but so, too, have the Empire State Games, which are back (albeit not from a Honeymoon) to add a little excitement to our summer.

Last we saw them the Hudson Valley girls fared pretty well despite the stifling confines of Westchester Community College (no air conditioning). The scholastic girls won the silver, falling to Shenise Johnson and Rochester in the gold-medal game, and the open team won the gold.

Both should have a good chance again, Porsha Postell or not. Johnson is gone and the HV scholastic team has returned a few of its best players from a year ago. The open team is truly loaded, and with its contingent of D-I players from the area it should at least make it to the gold medal game.

For all the latest on the ESGs, you can log on to our Empire State Games blog and for news, photos and videos of the events you can check our our ESG home page.

Both women’s teams open with NYC, the scholastic at 2 p.m. and the open at 8 p.m. They each play Adirondack on Friday and Central on Saturday, with the medal games set for Sunday morning.

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say I’m headed off on my honeymoon in the morning so you won’t hear from me for a couple weeks. The new wife and I are taking our deep breaths now after several months of planning. Wedding preparation can get pretty crazy, as many of our readers can attest.

If you have any questions, concerns, breaking news, etc., Jake is your guy. You can e-mail him at jtthomas@lohud.com.

Enjoy your July!

Well, it was a move we thought may happen and now  it’s official: Sue Adams has resigned as coach at White Plains. Adams will leave after eight seasons to spend more time with her family. (As you know, Kim plays college basketball at Penn. Also, older son Ryan will be a senior, and younger son Kyle is in middle school.)

In such a short time, Adams left quite a legacy at her alma mater. The Tigers won the last four Section 1 Class AA championships and two regional championships, and advanced to consecutive state finals in 2005 and 2006.

I’ll have more on this later.

The open division women’s basketball team was picked for Hudson Valley. Here’s the team:

Sad news today. Former Ketcham guard Lisa Moray was killed today in a car accident. Former Carmel star Meghan Wood was a passenger. She was injured, but was able to communicate with police on the scene.

Obviously, it’s a terrible story. It happened on the ramp from the Sprain Brook Parkway South onto I-287 East. If you know the area, you know it is a terrible ramp.

You can read about the accident here.

Good luck to Meghan in her recovery and condolences to the Moray family. Very, very sad news.

I talked to Dan Ricci, and he gave me the names of players who made the team. They are:

Taneka Whittaker, Lourdes

Alexandra Osborn-Jones, Eye Country Day

Sophia Aleksandravicius, Holy Child

Gillian Felix, Mahopac

Porsha Postell, Woodlands

Shannon Ray, Ursuline

Shelby Sferra, Ursuline

Kara Tancredi, Beacon

Alaina Walker, Albertus Magnus

Blind Brook and ESG coach Manny Martinez has asked me to tell everybody that Wednesday’s 7 p.m. practice for Empire State games at SUNY Purchase has been canceled. No make up date has been scheduled.

Congrats are in order for former Scarsdale star Lindsay Gottlieb, who was named the head coach at UC-Santa Barbara today.

There are a couple interesting things to note about Gottlieb. 1) She helped recruit Angelei Aguirre to Cal, where Gottlieb was an assistant coach, and 2) She played for Luke Vaccaro back in the 90s. Remarkably, she made it out in one piece. (I’m just kidding.)

I’m going to try to catch up with Gottlieb at some point soon. But for now you can check out the school’s release on her hiring here.

Former Ursuline star Cori Chambers was cut by the Connecticut Sun yesterday. The move came as a surprise to the Elmsford native, but she hopes to get added by another WNBA team this season.

My colleague Tony Pinciaro talked to Chambers and Sun coach Mike Thibault and has the story.

My take: Chambers is a great shooter. She ranks No. 1 all-time at Georgia, which isn’t an accomplishment to scoff at. She’s also still young (22), so I imagine she’ll have at least one more shot to catch on. If not, there’s always pro ball in Europe.

Anyone out there have an opinion on where Cori will land next?