Daily Sports Digest: Pearl River's Wilson Helps Surging Valiants

The Manhattanville College women’s basketball team hosts Delaware Valley 6 p.m. tonight at Kennedy Gym in Purchase after breaking a losing streak with an impressive 67-54 victory over four-time Freedom Conference champion DeSales University of Center Valley, PA.

Leading scorer Taylor Wilson of Pearl River powered the Valiants with 21 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Jen McSharar of Garnerville, the team’s rebounding force, also had seven rebounds, five assists and three steals to go along with eight points.

McSharar, however, was lost for the season when she suffered a mild concussion and reinjured her badly-sprained wrist in an ensuing 53-41 loss to King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA. McSharar, a graduate of North Rockland HS, played just 15 minutes before leaving the game, but already had pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Valiants (7-14 overall, 2-9 in the conference) are playing their Pink Cancer game tonight against Delaware Valley (12-11), and are home again on Saturday at 1 p.m. to welcome Misericordia University (14-9) of Dallas, PA.

College Sports Notebook:

Jaspers vault above .500

Monica Roeder of Marlton, NJ, had 21 points, including 11 straight midway through the second half, as the Manhattan College women’s basketball team (13-12, 7-6 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) pulled away for a 57-36 victory over Rider (10-15, 2-12 MAAC) at Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, NJ.

Maggie Blair of Briarcliff had three points in 14 minutes, with her trey opening up an eight-point lead for the Lady Jaspers late in the first half.

Manhattan is back in action on Wednesday, when Iona (10-13, 6-6 MAAC) visits Draddy Gymnasium in Riverdale for a 7 p.m. matchup.  It will be Manhattan’s annual ‘Play 4 Kay’ game for breast cancer awareness, and all fans are encouraged to come to the contest dressed in pink.

Rinaldi stars in defeat

Dennis Rinaldi of Harrison poured in a career-high 21 points, but Western New England University was upended by Eastern Nazarene, 79-69, in men’s basketball at Quincy, MA.

The host Lions, who had lost nine straight since defeating the Golden Bears in Springfield, MA, on Jan. 14, are now 4-19 overall and 3-13 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference.

Western New England--which tonight at 7:30 hosts Roger Williams University (12-11) and junior guard Matt Grossbard of Pearl River--fell to 5-11 in CCC play and 8-15 overall.

Rinaldi, a sophomore, led four Golden Bears in double figures, with sophomore forward Dan Minto of West Hempstead recording his sixth double-double of the season with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Rinaldi added six rebounds and three blocked shots in 28 minutes of action.

He shall return
Penn Gottfried of Hartsdale, a member of the Columbia University wrestling team, is facing shoulder surgery that effectively ended this season, but not his career on the mat. “He’ll be taking the year off, but absolutely will be in the lineup (next year). He was our starter at 125 (pounds), and we expect him back,” noted assistant coach Hudson Taylor, a one-time grappler at the University of Maryland.

Gottfried is a sophomore out of Ardsley High School.

Go Gaels Go

Scott Machado of Queens registered his first career triple-double as the Iona College basketball team outlasted Marist, 83-74, in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) game at the Hynes Center in New Rochelle.

Machado, a senior, had help from classmate Mike Glover of the Bronx and junior Lamont Jones of Harlem, both of whom contributing 20-plus scoring efforts as the Gaels (20-6, 12-3 MAAC) moved back into a tie for first place with Loyola in the league standings.

Iona will play its final road contest of the regular season on Wednesday when they travel to Rider for a 7 p.m. contest in Lawrenceville, NJ. The Gaels then host Nevada on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN2 in a Sears Bracketbuster contest.

Section 1 Hgih School Basketball Playoffs

The Section 1 boys and girls basketball committees met Monday morning to set this year's playoff pairings.  

Pearl River, Albertus Magnus and Tappan Zee could all end up hosting doubleheaders for their girls and boys teams in Friday's first round, but the Pirates still have a little work to do.

The Pearl River boys team earned the No. 8 seed in Class A, but only the top seven were able to avoid outbracket games due to the 25-team field. The Pirates will play at home 4:30 p.m. Wednesday against Yonkers.

If Pearl River wins, it would play Riverside or Nyack 7 p.m. Friday, right after the top-seeded Lady Pirates girls (16-2) open their pursuit of the Class A title. The Pearl River will face the winner of Wednesday's outbracket game between Pelham (8-10) and Nyack (7-11).

The Lady Pirates may see some very familiar faces on their path through the tournament. They could face a quarterfinal against Peekskill, which would be a rematch of last year's championship game loss. Pearl River could also play Albertus Magnus in the semifinals for the second consecutive season. 

Albertus Magnus and Tappan Zee are already set for Friday Doubleheaders.

The Albertus Magnus girls will play Brewster or Yonkers in a Class A game at 6 p.m., followed by the Falcons taking on Putnam Valley in a Class B boys game at 8 p.m.

The Tappan Zee boys are the top seed in Class A and face a first-round game with either Lakeland or Spring Valley 7 p.m. Friday. The Tappan Zee girls, who got the No. 2 seed, will play at 5 p.m. against Poughkeepsie or Eastchester.

Valentine's Day

I would like to be the first person to wish everyone a very Happy VaLINtine’s Daythis year.

Weekly Sports Poll

Earlier in the month the Baseball Hall of Fame started a drug education program for students and young adults. “Be A Superior Example” or “BASE” will work with the Taylor Hooton Foundation and the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society in an effort to promote a healthy lifestyle for young athletes that is completely free of performance enhancing drugs.

"It is through the education programs that we are able to fulfill our mission of providing context to the issues that have faced our game, as a reflection of American history, throughout its history," Baseball Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson said to the Associated Press.

In the upcoming months Idelson and the Hall of Fame are hoping to conduct a nationwide survey, hold a summit in Cooperstown and begin a national registry for people pledging to live a PED free lifestyle.

Since 1936 voting for the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York has been an integral part in the Major League Baseball season. This year controversial figures like Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens will be appearing on the ballot for the first time. Now the only question is should this trio of notorious superstars be allowed into baseball’s hallowed halls? Or should they be left out of Cooperstown like so many others?