Clean Sweep: Rochester squads take BCANY titles

By PAUL GOTHAM

WOODBURY, N.Y. — One team wanted to add to its string of championships. The other was trying to end a drought.

Goals accomplished.

The Rochester girls and boys teams both went undefeated to claim separate championships in the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Summer Festival on Sunday at Monroe-Woodbury High School.

The Rochester girls built a 31-22 halftime lead and went on to beat Central, 59-51. The title was the third straight for the local team.

“It’s a pretty special thing to do with the competition level you come down here to play,” said head coach Jeff Parizek. “To win one is amazing. To win two is even better. To win three is absolutely unspeakable. It’s a credit to the girls we’ve had the past few years and the hard work they put in during the off-season.”

AJ Orr scored 16 of her game-high 24 points in the second half to help secure the victory.

“Coaching her in AAU for the past two years, it’s been a pleasure,” Parizek said of the guard/forward from Aquinas. “To watch her really excel here was special. I know some college coach is going to take a chance on her and be happy. Not only is she the type of athlete you want to coach, but she’s the type of kid you want in your program. She took it to another level today where she couldn’t be guarded going to the basket.”

Orr connected six times from the floor and converted 4-of-6 from the free throw line over the final 16 minutes. Her and-one with 4:21 remaining gave Rochester a 55-39 lead.

“I wasn’t really worried about points,” she said. “I wanted my team to win as one. Get everybody involved and make sure everyone was together and doing everything correctly. The points just came as a result of that.”

The win came after Rochester held off Mid-Hudson in the semifinals earlier in the day. After taking a 14-point lead at halftime, the local team managed a 56-51 win.

“In that first game, we dealt with some adversity early on in the second half,” Parizek said. “Mid-Hudson made an 8-0 run to start the second. We called a timeout, talked about calming down, about slowing down and staying positive.

“We were able to persevere and find a way to build the lead back up again. The reality of it is getting that test from Mid-Hudson really prepared us for this one. We knew we couldn’t stop, never let up on the gas because Central is very good with their guard play and forwards. They can score in bunches. We had to stay focused for 32 minutes.”

Loren Green added 12 points in the win while Eva Dixon had eight. Lucy Bush (4), Emerson Wandtke (4), Tessa Rodwell (3), Kylie Clement (2), Braelyn Isaman (1) and Jordyn Dyring (1) also scored in the win.

Rochester, which went 6-0 for the weekend, became the first girls team in the 12-year history of the event to win three straight titles. The championship was the fifth for the locals – another event record.

“For us to come together in four practices and then to play in this tournament and go undefeated for three straight years is pretty special.”

Cam Blankenberg scored five of his team-high 19 points during a decisive stretch in the second half as the Rochester boys pulled away from a back-and-forth affair for a 66-60 win over Central.

Blankenberg hit a turnaround jumper in the lane to tie the game at 50. He converted 1-of-2 free throws with 4:32 remaining to give Rochester a lead it did not surrender at 53-52.

“Whenever you have Cam Blankenberg, you have the best player on the court,” said first-year Rochester boys head coach, Chris Barrett whose team also finished 6-0 over the three-day tournament. “You give me the lead with less six minutes to go and the best player on the court, I’ll take that.

“He makes the right play every time. He doesn’t have to score but can whenever he wants.”

Jake McCarthy converted a putback slam to tie the game at 52. Carson Chaffee followed Blankenberg’s free throw with his first of two 3-pointers. Chase Leonardo drove to the basket for a layup. Blankenberg scored in the lane, and Landon Washburn hit twice from the charity stripe to give Rochester its largest lead of the second half at 66-56 with 1:43 remaining.

“We stayed the course, were able to be ourselves and it worked out, Barrett said. “We have guys who have won sectional championships, gone to state finals. We have really big-game experience, so I wasn’t worried about our composure, our poise. I knew we would be okay with that.”

Leonardo forced a turnover when he drew a charge with the game tied at 52, and Jake McCarthy had one of his three second-half blocks during the decisive run.

“We were really worried about our defense coming into the tournament,” Barrett said. “During practice against ourselves, we were just lighting ourselves up. We wondered if we were going to be able guard anyone. When we got down here we saw that we had so much skill that we made ourselves look bad defensively. They competed defensively at a level higher than I thought we were capable of accomplishing.”

Leonardo finished with 13 points. Chaffee had 10 and McCarthy scored six. Washburn accounted for five points. Christian Zarzycki ((7), Jackson Green (5) and Trevor Nally (1) rounded out the scoring.

Central’s Jahzar Greene led all scorers with 25 points.

The title was the first for the Rochester boys since claiming back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016. Only Hudson Valley with four has more championships on the boys’ side.

The two titles in the same year was the first for the Rochester programs. Only Hudson Valley in 2012 has taken the championships simultaneously.

*Article has been updated.