By Phil Terrigno
pterrigno@lohud.com
NEW ROCHELLE — There were moments before both of Ossining’s sectional games
at the County Center when it appeared Jalay Knowles might play.
The sophomore center dressed in her warm-up attire and walked out with the team but never made it off the bench due to an ankle injury she suffered on Feb. 15 against Mamaroneck.
Finally cleared to play in the Pride’s 69-49 state regional semifinalwin over Section 4’s Horseheads Tuesday at the College of New Rochelle, the 6-foot-1 Knowles returned size to Ossining’s lineup at a time when it will encounter increasingly physical play in the state playoffs.
“I feel great. I do feel great,” Knowles said. “(My ankle) is a little stiff but it’s my first time back. I’ve been working nonstop all day, every day, since the injury. So I’m doing my best.”
Knowles, who finished with seven points and 13 rebounds, played center, allowing freshman Shadeen Samuels to return to the four-position.
“It helps us a lot. It motivates us even more,” Ossining’s Andra Espinoza-Hunter said. “We can help out rebounding now. (Knowles is) 100 percent, but we want to help her out so she doesn’t injure herself again.”
Ossining advanced to face Section 9 champion Monroe-Woodbury in the state regional final Sunday at 2:45 p.m. at West Point’s Christl Arena.
The winner of that contest secures a berth in the state final four, which begins March 15 at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.
The Blue Raiders never led in the contest but collapsed on Pride ballhandlers whenever they entered the paint, limiting Ossining to 34 points in the first half.
“(Horseheads) was just very physical,” UConn-bound Saniya Chong said. “I wouldn’t say they (tried to) knock me down, but they were trying to play as hard as they could because they knew it could go either way.”
Chong finished with 31 points, eight assists and five steals. Espinoza-Hunter added 15 points.
Ossining, which has scored at least 84 points in every game since Feb. 2, managed to secure a comfortable lead through a third quarter in which it outscored Horseheads 24-15.
Jen Chalk scored 12 points and Amanda Schiefen added 11 for Horseheads, which outscored the Pride 15-11 in the final quarter.
“As a whole team, they were big. We are not used to playing team’s that are all around my size,” Knowles said.
Ossining and Monroe-Woodbury, which beat Kingston 29-18 to advance to Sunday’s game, share a common opponent in Newburgh.
The Pride demolished Newburgh 102-38. Monroe-Woodbury collected 16- and 12-point wins.
Chong has now scored exactly 800 points this season, which pushes her past St. Johnsville’s Caryn Schoff (794) and her own mark from last year (799) on the New York State single-season scoring list. Chong, who now sits alone in fourth place on the list, owns three of the top five spots.
New York State single-season scoring leaders:
1. Caryn Schoff, St. Johnsville (1994-95): 892
2. Saniya Chong, Ossining (2010-11): 812
3. Stefanie Collins, Odessa-Montour (2000-01): 811
4. Saniya Chong, Ossining (2012-13): 800* — still active
5. Saniya Chong, Ossining (2011-12): 799
As for the all-time state career scoring list, Chong didn’t make any leaps Tuesday afternoon, but she did make some dents:
New York State career scoring leaders:
1. Caryn Schoff, St. Johnsville (1989-95): 3,550
2. Bethany LeSueur, Garden City (1996-01): 3,167
3. Niesha Butler, Riverdale (1992-98): 3,127
4. Beth Record, Red Jacket (1992-97): 2,900
5. Tammi Reiss, Eldred (1983-88): 2,871
6. Saniya Chong, Ossining (2009-13): 2,860* — still active
20 Comments
Great end of the season for peekskill,CONGRATS
Congratulations to Peekskill on a great season esp for such a young team
Ossining wins 68-49
69-49
how were the refs MHALS are gnerally considered worst homers around. usually blatant?
Good game from Oss considering the extremely poor officiating. Ossining brought a great crowd and that gym was loud, first time in a long time I haven’t been able to hear Coach Ricci yelling his plays. lol
Jalay looked good despite being out for so long. Thought Oss was getting killed underneath though, nobody under the basket in the defensive zone to cover. Horseheads was a decent team. They had some size and physicality to them. They certainly didn’t go down without a fight.
Just saw a tweet from Mike Zacchio,
Saniya moved into soul possession of 4th place on the NYS single season scoring list with 800 points on the dot after her 31 points today.
This may be a stupid question but why does the other side of the bracket have so many teams with byes for AA? Seemed like everyone on the other side of the bracket gets a bye into the finals
29-18, are they sending the wrestling team?
@colonial – poor officiating? well then its not gonna get any better. #1,2 and 3 ranked officials were put on that game. Now you can’t complain any more. It doesn’t get any better than that.
@huh
I don’t care what their “rankings” are. That crew was probably the worst I’ve seen all year, def not top 3. If that crew was the best Section 1 has to offer, then that’s just embarrassing. It was awful on both sides, not just for Ossining. I could go on but I won’t.
This is the time of the year when complaints about the officiating approaches a crescendo. You can set your clocks by it. How about we mention the UNBELIEVABLY OUTSTANDING way that Mr. Sacco and his crew handled the NR/MV boys sectional championship game? I know that some of you will assert that the boys officials are superior to the girls but there are many that do both and there are girls officials that do a great job as well albeit not as many.
Stop whining and go out and win. Good luck to all of the Section One teams.
They definitely let them play, Honestly, I don’t know how Fitz get his ranking. Its gotta be more politics than ability. Decent ref but Ive seen him make some horrendous calls and non calls. Last night and at CC last week.
Fitz, like every ref, misses some calls. Despite that, he is an excellent official. Although his ego often gets the best of him, he is pretty good at what he does. What other Section One officials would you recommend to go on to the next level?
Stanner,
I agree with you on the New Ro game. They handled the end of that as best as they could given the fact that video review isn’t allowed in NY. They did the right thing by getting together and discussing it. Sometimes you have to respect the shot in cases like that imo.
Thanks to the new filters there is no one going nuts about Ricci keeping the starters in. Although Chong playing after being carried off the court with a cramp, and knowles coming back in during the 4th when she could rest her injury was a bit much. Especially considering they were up I believe 27 pts at the time
Colonial, the female ref is one of the best and does college. You’re a little out of line saying Extremely poor officiating. There were some bad calls and some that should’ve been called, that weren’t. What bother me the most was the chippy play of Horseheads?
Riverindian,
No offense but that doesn’t mean much of anything. Nor does it change my opinion of her or that crew. There’s a couple that do college games. Especially when they can’t keep up. They let them play in the first half, in the 2nd half not so much.
I have no issue with Horseheads play. As long as they’re playing within the rules there’s nothing wrong with being physical. They were a really good and well coached team. 4 of their starters were over 6’. Without Jalay, we would have been in trouble.
timeshavechanged,
it was a 20 point game, if he took the starters out any earlier they easily could have closed the gap and or taken the lead. I have no issue with leaving the starters in for as long as he did. They should play that much from here on out.
sorry, forgot to re-arrange a couple of those sentences to make better sense.
Fitz is a showboat..plain and simple. He blows more calls than most officials do. He is too quick with the whistle on drives to the basket and is very guilty of not calling simple violations such as traveling and moving picks.