Opening day
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- November
- 28
There is no official opening day for the basketball season, but today is about as close as it gets. As you may’ve heard, there’s a big tournament today at Albertus Magnus. The Falcons host Burke Catholic at 3, followed by Ursuline and Maria Regina at 5.
Obviously, any time you have three contenders (Ursuline in AA, Magnus in A and Maria in the CHSAA) plus an annual Section 9 champ, you have a good field.
I had originally thought about publishing the first Top 10 today, but I decided it’s best to wait. Our preview will run next weekend, so I think I’ll wait until then.
I plan on swinging by Magnus later for the games so hopefully I’ll have more on those teams later tonight. It’s pretty much all basketball for me after this weekend so I will have much more to come in the coming days.
6:23 p.m.: Immersed in the basketball preview, which will publish on Dec. 6, I did not make it to Bardonia today. (That, for the non-Rocklanders, is where Albertus Magnus is.) But I do know that Magnus won quite easily, 72-43, over Burke Catholic. The Falcons led 50-13 after an impressive first half.
Alaina Walker scored a team-high 16 points and six steals and Kerry Higgins added 13 points, all in the first half. Cassie Cayser made five 3’s in her Magnus debut. Wow. … The other debut by a shooter was by transfer Melissa Place, who scored four points in her first game since coming over from Holy Angels in Jersey.
9:10 p.m.: I just spoke to Beth Wooters on the phone. Ursuline knocked off Maria Regina 58-43 behind 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists from Shannon Ray. Shelby Sferra scored a game-high 18. Arianna Apostolopolous scored eight in her varsity debut.
For Maria Regina, Bianca Kowgios scored 14 points on the strength of two 3’s. She had five boards, five assists and two steals. Katherine Sayegh, who missed last season with an injury, added 10, and Samantha Marinucci — the only other returning player with experience — had 11.
Ursuline led 32-19 at the half, but Maria cut it to single digits after three quarters. The Koalas responded and put the game away late, outscoring the Tigers 18-12 in the fourth.
For anyone interested in the game tomorrow, Magnus will host Ursuline in the championship game at 3 p.m. Maria and Burke Catholic will play in the consolation at 1.
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 10:22 am by Josh Thomson. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting, Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University, where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in history.
I just returned from the consolation and championship games for the Albertus tournament. I arrived late to the consolation game MR Vs. Burke catholic.
What a terrific game, and effort by both teams. I believe the final was Maria Regina 53 Burke 52. Bianca had an awesome game. Burke showed a lot of heart to close it to within one in the final minute.
In the finals it was Albertus Vs. Ursiline. The game was very close almost the entire way until Albertus pulled away in the end of the 3rd Qtr and early 4th. It s was AM 30 to U 25 at half time, and AM 49 – U 41 starting the 4th Qtr. The game belonged to Alaina Walker. She scored her 1,000 career point and had an unbelievable 37 for the night. Both teams have a lot of excellent talent, and it was a well played game with class and sportsmanship. Both teams should go a long way this season.
AM 63 U52
Congrats Alaina!!!
Wow
Ursuline gets players from all over Wetschester and the BX and cant beat little Rockland Cty team.
I wonder if Ursuline played Lourdes, Regina, Burke and AM would they be that special?????????
FYI Albertus gets players from all over as well. Including NJ??? Lets just say good game, and the better team today won.
Who on AM lives in NJ?
“Who on AM lives in NJ?”
Not one player
First of all, it is a tranfer from NJ.. but I’m surprised she is allowed to play…
Actually, AM seems to get a lot of transfers who don’t have to sit out…
ie. WALKER FROM ROCKLAND
PLACE FROM NJ
Oh, and I stayed for the game last night, and I don’t know who would have won, but the game would have been much different if the refs called it fairly.
Congrats on 1,000 Alaina!
That was my point. I was responding to the post abt Ursuline getting players from all areas. Don’t throw stones b/c Albertus is in the same boat.
All of the players on the albertus team are from the county. The one transfer they have this year i believe played jv basketball last year and from watching the games doesnt seem to be in their top 8. A person can transfer schools for the sake of going to a different school, theres nothing wrong with that. The Albertus hate on this is incredible. The game was reffed fairly bad calls went both ways it happens. Albertus was the better team that day and won. They had the best player on the court. Ursuline is a very good team that does get players from all over westchester and the bronx, theres no arguing that. Let’s just be fair about our comments.
Baller 55, everyone knows if you play against Albertus anywhere in Rockland the calls are always lopsided.
Mike Hoops
Last time i checked Albertus was a catholic school and they can get players from anywhere also. And Ursuline doesnt have one player that is from the bronx on the team. Also for both of these teams there is 18 games left in the regular season so you can not decide anything from one game in the early part of the season. I’m not going to take anything away from Albertus and Alaina but everyone knows when your in Rockland the home team is favorite with them
bball fan
Most years Ursuline covers the entire Westchetser are and the BX. Myabe this year they dont, who knows. HOwever, it is funny that such a big area WESTCHESTER cant beat ROCKLAND.
I guess Mike Hoops wasn’t watching the semis since Ursuline beat Regina….....EASILY…....Oh by the way let’s not forget REGINA is a catholic also and gets girls from all over the county attending there as well.
Didn’t see the finals (I WAS SCARED OF THE PLATES ON THE BRIDGE LOL), can’t comment about the refs for the game, but as usual everyone speaking bout the “calls” on that side of the bridge already.
Gets tiring to hear that girl came from here that other girl came from there! If the powers that be… allow it and it is within the rules then it is what it is. Everyone gets to do the same and you do not have to be catholic to go to Albertus or Ursuline. Just sign on they will take you, then you just got to make the team.
When in Westchester it seems to look like some favoritism gong on there also with the refs at times in a game also. It is more what side of the bridge the eyes live or support… is it not?
Yea but MRHS plays in the CHSAA not Section 1 and therein lies the difference. Also the ”...EASILY…” Not so much. It was a 6pt game late in the third Ursuline just stronger down the stretch.
This is all very easy to solve. The private schools should be allowed to play in the public school leagues to keep travel to a minimum and to keep some healthy rivalries going. But once sectional play commences than they should move to a private school classification….The section breaks up the classes based on size of school so that you even up the playing field. Same should go for the private schools….this would stop all the banter cause at the end of the day that is what really is not fair….Since all private schools can recruit that would keep all of them isolated to the same classification….
laxfanatic has a great suggestion. it is fair and shouldn’t be hard to implement. public schools which can only field teams from their community should not have to compete for the gold balls with schools which can attract players from all over.
OK right or wrong. Here is my suggestion to all this whining about Catholic School recruiting
As suggested by Laxfanatic let them play some Section 1 teams ( No Sec 1 tourney) as well as playing in the Catholic School League (play in that Tournament)
After a couple of seasons lets see who is attracted to the Magnus, Ursulines.
I’m sure the education is excellent but lets see how many want to leave their School District just to play ball in a less of a league.
If they want a Parochial School education that’s great but I have seen that Section 1 is the reason many good players will choose to play at a Ursuline instead of Regina , OLV type schools.
Section 1 feeds into this transferring by allowing these Schools to play on the big stage
Not all catholic schools can recruit. Albertus CANNOT recruit. If you live in the county and your daughter is a talented basketball player why not get her to a school where their is very good basketball played and will get a good education? If the school recruited they would be able to compete at a very high level in all sports not just girls basketball, people need to get a clue before they start making ridiculous comments.
The word “recruit” is really not the proper word here. Having grown up in the Brian Giorgis hey-day and knowing a bunch of his very good players, I know that he never “recruited” anyone. He did not have to if you had a daughter that was a good basketball player, and you wanted to push that avenue then you would obviously send her to Lourdes at that time. However, there is an unfair playing area, not because I think that the Catholic schools recruit, but just because they are not bound by geographical boundaries. The suggestion above is feasible about allowing them to remain in section one during regular season and then advance in parochial playoffs, probably the best idea I have heard in a long time, however with any program I am building I want to play the best and BEAT the BEST.
People fail to realize that 70% of the current AM varsity team had a brother, sister, or parent attend the school. They were going to go to Albertus even if the basketball program was awful. You just get lucky sometimes and have a bunch of kids in the same age group that can play ball. I assume it’s like that at a lot of Catholic schools.
BTW – I think ballboy makes some great points.
What about Good Counsel Academy or Kennedy Catholic High School, they are in the same boat and neither team is very good. I’m not convinced that it is about the recruiting as much as it is about the coaching.
Stan Marsh,
I agree 100% it is entirely about the coaching, which is what I said in my earlier post. However, if you have a great coach at a catholic institution, or any private school they do have an advantage simply because they are not bound by geographical boundaries. For example, Giorgis never had to walk into a gym and recruit, if your daughter could play and you could reasonably send her there despite where you live, then why wouldn’t you do that?
I am new to this so I don’t want to jump in too deep but I find the entire discussion regarding public vs. private a little simplistic. There are many reasons girls and their parents chose a school. It is true that girls attend Ursuline from towns other than New Rochelle but it is not like there are no other options for basketball in Southern Westchester. New Rochelle High has 3,200 students. Lets assume that half are girls. Add on top of that two middle schools with 1,000 students each (assume 500 girls each) and you see the pool for that New Rochelle’s program is tremendous (2,600). I might point out that girls go to White Plains, Mamaroneck and Mt. Vernon (Ursuline’s former starting point guard) instead of Ursuline. There are not many parents in Scarsdale that will send their daughter to Ursuline for basketball! Girls from all of those schools go onto Division 1 programs and get a great education from their high schools. It helps that in addition to basketball, Ursuline is one of the top academic schools in the area and consistently places their girls in some of the finest colleges in the country. It is also a great option for those for whom Catholic centered education is important. Finally there are many students from Yonkers and the Bronx not because of basketball but because Ursuline is an excellent option to the public schools in those locations. I know this site is about girls basketball, and that is great, but try not to make a complex decision on where to send a child to high school seem to come down to the basketball tea, it may be a factor but it certainly isn’t the controlling factor. And if the standings for the last many years are any indication, the public schools down here are not suffering because Ursuline gets girls from multiple towns. (See three gold balls in a row for White Plains).
ballboy,what about moran from haldane the one that got away?