Daily Sports Digest: New Rochelle Hockey Advances with 4-1 Victory

The Top Spot

New Rochelle Head Coach Jim Tozzo missed the game, but a big third period propelled the Huguenots into the next round with a 4-1 victory.

Rye Town/Harrison was first to get on the scoreboard as Dean Brancucci set up Kevin Fusco early in the first period for the games first goal. New Rochelle’s Brett Barry came back in the second to score an unassisted goal to tie up the game.

New Rochelle has a plethora of weapons they can use to hurt the defense and they showed that yesterday as three different players scored goals to give the Huguenots the boost they needed.

Chris Ramondelli started it off when he scored on a power play with eight minutes left in the game as New Rochelle never looked back. John Valente fired one in past the Titan goalie a minute later and Kenny McLean opened up the floodgates when he scored with 80 seconds left to clinch the victory.

New Rochelle had 44 shots on goal to Rye Town/Harrison’s 22, in fact the Huguenots had 22 shots on goal in the third period. Greg Feliu had 21 saves in the win and Jamie Ketchabaw had 40 for the Titans in the loss.

Yesterday’s Results:

Sport: Boys Basketball

Game: New Rochelle @ Mt. Vernon
Score: Mount Vernon Won 74-59

Highlights: Section 1’s Mr. Basketball, Isaiah Cousins, led the way with 16, and Jarrel Marshall and Qwadere Lovell each had 12 points for Mount Vernon. Kirkland Ottey led all scorers with 25 points in the loss; Sean Fener added 16.

Sport: Boys Basketball

Game: Iona Prep vs. St. Anthony’s
Score: Iona Prep Won 66-48

Highlights: Felix Abongo led the way with 24 points for the Gales as Brandon Williams added 13 in the win. St. Anthony’s had four players reach double figures.

Sport: Girls Basketball

Game: New Rochelle @ Our Lady of Lourdes
Score: Lourdes Won 67-29

Sport: Girls Basketball

Game: Ursuline @ John Jay (EF)
Score: John Jay (EF) Won 59-55 (OT)

Highlights: Kally Balfour and Brittany Gullo each had 17 to lead John Jay (EF) and Brittany Gregory added 13 in the win. Grace Brennan led the Koalas with 13 points in the loss.

College Sports Notebook:

Spartans hope against hope

Justin Brown of Uniondale led the way with a game-high 23 points but the St. Thomas Aquinas College men’s basketball team dropped its fifth straight game, 74-66 at Caldwell (NJ) College. Omar Kellman of the Bronx added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Spartans. The non-conference tilt dropped STAC’s overall record to 8-16, while the host improved to 14-12 on the campaign.

The Spartans enter the final week of the regular season with a return to conference play, and with sights set on qualifying for one of the six bids in the upcoming East Coast Conference Tournament.

STAC’s 4-10 ECC mark puts them in seventh place, just one-half game behind sixth-place Molloy entering key contests at the University of Bridgeport tonight, and in the home finale against Mercy College on senior day Saturday at 3 p.m. in Sparkill.

Molloy (5-10 in the ECC) finishes its conference slate tonight at second-place University of District of Columbia, and if the teams were to finish tied in the standings the Spartans’ fate in tiebreakers could well rest in the hands of other ECC results in the final days of competition.

New York Institute of Technology had put a damper on the Spartans’ hopes with a 75-66 victory in which James Ockimey of Uniondale had 14 points.

The ECC Tournament begins on Feb. 29 with first-round action at high seeds and culminates with the semis and finals at Queens College on March 3-4.

Mortarboard musings

• The Wentworth College hockey team, which closed the regular season with a 5-2 win over Salve Regina in Portsmouth, RI, to capture the championship, earned a first-round bye as the top seed in the ECAC Northeast Tournament. The Leopards (18-7-1, 11-2-1), including sophomore defenseman Andrew Moscardelli of Pearl River, will host the lowest remaining seed on Feb. 29, at 8 p.m.
• Britanya Crow of Westchester Community College helped the Vikings finish third in the NJCAA Region XV Bowling Championships at AMF Garden City and AMF Bayshore. Crow, an alumna of Blessed Sacrament HS in New Rochelle, averaged 144 and finished 10th in the 12-game all-events category.
• The Westchester Community College men’s basketball team defeated rival Rockland CC, 73-66, at home in Valhalla to raise its record to 10-14. The win was the Vikings’ fourth straight in Mid-Hudson Conference competition.
• The Westchester CC women’s basketball lost a rematch at Suffolk, 63-61, but already had clinched the No. 2 seed in the NJCAA Region XV Championship tournament.
• The Mercy College baseball team, which went 17-28 last season, was picked to finish sixth this year in the East Coast Conference. Senior Tyler Savin of Wantagh heads a pitching staff that includes freshmen Joe Pareres of Bronxville and Bryan Greig of New City, senior Walter Kowalezyk of Valhalla and sophomore Brian McNamara of Brewster.

Weekly Sports Poll:

Jeremy Lin has taken the world by storm and flipped the NBA upside down. He has inspired music videos and a countless number of “Linisms” and the thought of him moving to White Plains has everyone in Westchester calling him their neighbor. On Friday, the league will honor their very best in Orlando with the annual All-Star weekend.

“If basketball careers lasted two weeks then Jeremy Lin is a first ballot hall of famer,” said Wipeout co-host and life long Knick fan John Henson last week on Mike and Mike in the Morning.

Last week, NBA Commissioner David Stern refused to add Lin to the All-Star Game roster or allow him to play in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, but did say he could be included in one of the All-Star Saturday night competitions such as the Haier Shooting Stars, Taco Bell Skills Challenge,Foot Locker Three Point Contest or Sprite Slam Dunk.

After outcry from the public and the media, Stern and the NBA made the move to include Linsanity to the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, he will also be competing for New York in the Haier Shooting Stars and he will assist teammate Iman Shumpert in the Sprite Slam Dunk. Not only was Lin included in this year’s Rising Stars game, but in the new format general manager Shaquille O’Neal made him the third overall pick of the contest behind Blake Griffin and Kyrie Irving.

Now, as a business school graduate, I fully understand the marketability of Lincluding the Linsteria to the weekend, but as a life long basketball fan I have to ask the question; should someone who has only played in 17 of his teams 31 games really be honored at All Star Weekend?

Let us know your thoughts below in this week's sports poll.

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