In the Class AA quarterfinal at No. 1 Ossining, Saniya Chong scored 30 points, extending her Section 1 record for career points to 2,761 as the Pride topped Scarsdale 94-49. Shadeen Samuels had 20 points. Shelby Zucker had 20 points for the Raiders. The Pride will play No. 4 Ursuline in the semifinals on Thursday, Feb. 28 at the County Center. 
The win was the 350th career win of Ossining coach Dan Ricci’s 22-year career at Ossining.
“What’s great about it is it was all at one school,” Ricci said. “I’ve only coached at Ossining. I’ve had some great players over the years. I’ve been (at Ossining) for 22 years. Longevity — you’ve got to have longevity to have something like that and having great players that work really, really hard.”
Senior Danielle Gervacio, who has been coached by Ricci for five years on the Ossining varsity team, said Ricci’s strength is managing and developing players.
“He’s developed every one of the seniors into the players they are now,” Gervacio said. “He gets down to the nitty-gritty. For example, if you’re having a problem with your shot, he’ll definitely help you with that. He’s definitely a personal kind of coach.”
Ricci said he plans on coaching for another 5-7 years.
“We’ve got great kids coming up,” Ricci said. “Andra Espinoza-Hunter is going to be here for four more years. Shadeen Samuels is going to be here for three more years.”
“I love every day I go to work.”
Below are the final scores of all the quarterfinal games that took place today.
Class AA
Ossining 94, Scarsdale 49
New Rochelle 63, John Jay-East Fishkill 55
Ursuline 56, Arlington 51
Lourdes 45, Clarkstown South 40
Class C
Haldane 67, Yonkers Montessori 13
Palisade Prep 36, Tuckahoe 20
Keio 37, Solomon Schechter 11
Holy Child 71, St. Luke’s 40: In the quarterfinals of the Fairchester Athletic Association playoffs at Greenwich Academy, Josie Amerson had 25 points and 16 rebounds for the No. 3 Gryphons in beating the sixth seeded Storm. Shannon O’Connor had 15 points. Chellzea edgar had nine points, nine rebounds and seven steals. Holy Child will play the winner of No. 7 King vs. No. 2 Hamden Hall on Friday in the semifinals. The site is to be determined.
Rye Country Day 62, Greenwich Academy 37: In the quarterfinals of the Fairchester Athletic Association playoffs at No. 1 Rye Country Day, Corolyn Binder had 35 points and six assists in the Wildcats win over No. 8 Greenwich Academy. Nereida Mendiz had 11 points and six assists. Tara Berger had 10 rebounds. Rye Country Day will host No. 4 Convent of the Sacred Heart on Friday in the semifinals.
Haldane 67, Yonkers Montessori 13: In the Class C quarterfinal at No. 2 Haldane, Liz Khadabux had 16 points and Sam Lisikatos had 12 points. Sarah Crucitti had six points for No. 7 Yonkers Montessori. Haldane will play No. 3 Palisade Prep in the semifinals on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at the County Center.
PLAYOFF PICK’EM:
Today’s record: 4-3
Playoff record: 36-12
Regular season record: 275-80 (313-92 overall)
22 Comments
If the Ossining starters remained in, they could have easily scored 120 and Scarsdale wouldn’t have seen 30 points for the game. They came out firing tonight, Shadeen Samuels really stepped up in place of Jalay Knowles who went down with an ankle injury last game.
The Oss starters just put on a clinic out there.
Couldn’t agree more. It was ugly. Scarsdale coach said he had a game plan. He was literally pressing the JV PG late in the 4th qtr down 40.
Coach Ricci 350 wins tonight.
Already tweeted it an hour ago, we’re updating the post sporadically. That will be added tonight. Thanks for the update though hsbbfan!
@Colonial, Could’ve won by 80 but only won by 45. Great job by the Oss. coach. That’s what hs basketball is all about.
@Colonial, I’d like to retract my previous statement after hearing about the halftime score. I apologize. Congrats to coach Ricci for his 350th win and I wish him and the girls a rewarding post season.
Scarsdale only scored against the OSS jv …. At half 61-13 says enough
Couldn’t be happier for coach Ricci. He’s had some awesome kids over those 22 years they’ve learned their lessons well!
Perhaps Scarsdale will learn from Ossining’s mercy in the second half and pay such sportsmanship forward to another team if the opportunity presents itself in future seasons.
Lol Stanner,
Don’t worry about it. Scarsdale was pressing the 7/8th grade point guard from Oss late in the 4th. The JV center (another tall girl who really impresses me) grabbed 8-10 rebounds in a quarter and a half.
Scarsdale’s coach claimed to have had a game plan prior to the game. Needless to say, it worked for about a minute or 2. That’s how long it took for Oss to get on the scoreboard. The refs even said in the 3rd quarter, the game was over after the 1st and they were just making sure nobody got hurt or did anything stupid at that point.
At Stannergrad, why retract your post? Once again what was Ossining supposed to do, not score? Scarsdale had no answer, they looked like deer do when they are caught in the headlights and it wasn’t just Saniya scoring for Ossining, it was everyone. Scarsdale had too many turnovers and when they did control the ball they couldn’t make their shots. Congratulations to the whole team for the win, it was great to see everyone play including the two girls just brought up from JV and congratulations to coach Ricci for his 350th win.
Scarsdale completely outmatched. How were they ranked 8? Must have played a soft schedule this year.
Congratulations Dan. Great job and continued success. You do it the way we should all do it.
Well said Dreamer. What goes around comes around. Now maybe Scarsdale will show some sportsmanship next time when pressing a team they are beating by 30 in the 3rd quarter.
SHE IS NOT A 7th/8th GRADE POINT GUARD!!! SHE IS A SOPHMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was her first varsity game nonetheless. And they were indeed pressing her with their starters in the 4th qtr down 40. She handled it very well btw. Luke Vaccaro would never have done that. Had too much class.
First off, Scarsdale has played one of the toughest schedules of any team and frankly they are better than sees 8. However, regardless of seed, all roads lead through Ossining and Scarsdale had the ability to see the county center if they had not played Ossining in the second round of playoffs. Ricci pressed going into the third quarter, and Scarsdale still wanted to put up a fight.
Just looked at the roster and you’re correct. I had been told she wasn’t in high school yet. Take a chill pill, no need for all caps and exclamation points.
Anony, you may want to look at the game film. Ossining took off the press midway through the 2nd qtr and played 12 girls in the first half. And Shelby Zucker stayed in the game until their was 1:30 left in the game.
She is still very good for a sophore. She probably would have been a starter on any other varsity in the section since 7th grade. I LIKE CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!
“Ricci pressed going into the third quarter”
What does “going into” mean? Technically that would refer to the halftime break, so I doubt Ricci was pressing Scarsdale in the locker room. Are you saying Ossining pressed at the start of the third quarter after being up 61-13 at the half?
The 10th grade JV point guard and the 10th grade tower of terror will be starting next year…look out boys and girls.