On Tuesday night at Canisius for its game against Bishop Kearney, as Keith McShea made his way to the media table where I was sitting, he walked past the Blue Crew and drew quite the "KEITH" ovation from the student section. Earlier, when I walked by them, I heard centercourt. I looked up to see them pointing out where the St. Joe's kids were sitting across the way.
There are eight remaining unbeaten teams in WNY. Three large schools: Jamestown, Williamsville North, and Sweet Home. Five small schools: Olean, Silver Creek, Newfane, Holland, and Clymer. We will be down to seven by December 26th, as Williamsville North hosts Holland in the first round of its tournament.
The song All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey, always make me think of Depew, because I watched them warmup to the song at its Holiday Tournament in 2010. Actually, most Christmas music holds some HS basketball association for me because I'm always listening to it while driving to games in December.
Over the last three seasons, the Section VI sectionals program cover has featured Lew-Port/Wilson (2010), Lockport/Grand Island (2011), and Lockport/Ken West (2012). While the 2010 Lakemen made it to Buff State, the player from the cover photo never saw the floor in the semifinals. The other schools never even advanced to the semis. You have to go back to the cover of the 2009 program (Falls/Jamestown with TJ Crittenden & Marcus McAffee) to find players who competed on the court at Buff State.
In a 73-25 win over DaVinci, Emerson's Lenny Dowell was credited with the following stat line: 32 points, 21 boards, and 14 assists. If you include the assists, he would have accounted for at least 60 points (they led 55-22 through three quarters). Thursday at Olmsted, Dowell finished with two points and no field goals.
Speaking of Lenny Dowell, the Eagles' senior is joined in the starting lineup by his brothers, junior Marki and freshman Jason.
Once in awhile I get myself freaked out by scrolling too quickly, too far down while checking scores on the Buffalo News scoreboard page, and wind up looking at the girls scores without realizing it. It happened most recently on Monday night, when I saw Lancaster 43, Will North 31 and said out loud, "What"?
Cassadaga Valley's Randy Dalaba scored 24 points to go with 21 rebounds in a 64-50 win over Cattaraugus/Little Valley.
I'd like to see Olean get a playoff bye until the Class B1 title game, just to see who would emerge as the champ in the competitive B1 class without them in it.
The Canisius Crusaders Blue Crew participated in the final minute of pregame warmups with the team at Tuesday's win over Kearney.
Based on early season results, Bishop Kearney would be considered no better than the fourth best team if we ranked them in WNY, behind Falls, Olean, and Canisius. If I were ranking them, I'd put three more teams – Jamestown, St. Joe's, & McKinley ahead of them as well.
Barker junior Jake Haight set the new individual game season-high scoring mark for this season in WNY with 40 points in a win over Elba.
Olean routed Southwestern, 70-36, without the services of Sam Eckstrom.
One of my favorite parts of following high school basketball is seeing a player for the first time who I've read or heard about for a longtime. That was recently the case for such players as Frewsburg's Alex Elderkin, Portville's Zach Blask, Emerson's Lenny Dowell, Clarence's Bryan Jost, and Olmsted's Jalen Schumaker.
Olmsted plays the best version of the National Anthem ever recorded – Whitney Houston's rendition from Super Bowl XXV.
-centercourt
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