Rocklanders Go Big East of the Hudson

The 'College Sports Notebook' is published each Friday. Please send items of interest—including local athletes competing at out-of-town colleges—to marcmaturo@aol.com.

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Nanuet’s Jessica Biggs—who has been a spark for two seasons at Westchester Community College—and Spring Valley’s Shikiera Dumas, who transferred to the Valhalla school in the second semester this season, are hoping for a postseason trip to Rochester, MN, for the NJCAA Division III women’s basketball championships.

The Lady Westcos, led by veteran 12th-year coach Leon Payne, a former player at CCNY—“That’s a while ago,” he laughs—must win two more games this weekend to punch a return ticket to the national stage where they went 0-3 last year.

Top-seeded WCC (16-5) first meets Queensborough CC at home tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. This is the third meeting between the schools: the Lady Westcos won the first encounter in enemy territory, and Queensborough returned the favor in the rematch but was extended into overtime before prevailing.

WCC’s chances this season have hinged upon the play of Biggs, a seasoned team captain and floor leader, and those chances were bolstered in the second semester by the addition of Dumas, a former AAU teammate of Biggs’.

“Dumas helps solidify the point; allows Jessica to roam free a bit,” Payne said. “Defensively, we put her on the best player. She definitely improves our team.”

Biggs’ play, however, is most critical to WCC’s performance.

“She’s a very good leader, one of the best captains I’ve ever had,” Payne lauded. “Basically, she eats, drinks and sleeps basketball. She does anything for you. Basically, as they say, she’s a run-through-the-wall type of kid.”

Biggs, the cousin of Nanuet’s Tyrell Biggs—now playing pro ball in Cyprus after a collegiate career at Pittsburgh—was averaging nearly a triple double for the Lady Westcos, with norms of 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Biggs’ stellar play throughout the season earned her first-team all-Region XV honors, and MVP accolades in the Mid Hudson Conference.

“It’s a great honor,” Biggs said. “I’m excited, I was not expecting it. But it makes me feel like a better player, to know I got it. I worked as hard as I could.”

Biggs was a JV player at Nanuet High as a seventh- and eighth-grader, but because of her competitive nature and love of the game, wanted bigger challenges. Because her cousin Tyrell had played at Don Bosco Prep, she looked to a New Jersey school, and selected Paramus Catholic on Tyrell’s recommendation.

“My family wanted me to see more options, to get more looks for college,” recalls Biggs. “I wanted better competition. Tyrell said, “Well, Paramus Catholic is a good school to go to’, and so I went.”

Because she had played at Nanuet, Biggs had to sit out her freshman year before becoming eligible. Now she is looking forward again to another new experience.

“I’m not sure where I want to go (after WCC), but I definitely want to go somewhere to play ball,” Biggs noted.

For now, Biggs just wants to play ball in Rochester, MN, despite WCC’s showing there last year in the national tournament.

“It was a great experience, it certainly opened our eyes,” said Biggs, with a patented positive outlook. “In Minnesota we saw a lot of competition that we didn’t see [during the season]. This year if we go back out there, we’ll have more insight of how it could be. Actually, some of the teams were not as good as I would think, but it was good competition.”

Maritime defenseman looks to the horizon

James McManus, who played hockey and lacrosse at Pearl River—winning a league title as a senior attackman in lacrosse—is already looking forward to the next hockey season at Maritime College.

The Privateers’ season ended with a 6-1 loss to eventual champion Wagner in the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs at AmeriHealth Pavilion at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. (Wagner upended top-seeded Fordham, 6-3, for the title.)

“Wagner’s a very physical team, they threw their body around early in the game, and got into our heads,” McManus admitted. “We picked up too many penalties, gave them too many power-play opportunities. And we were on a good streak coming into the playoffs, but we didn’t play Maritime hockey.

“I’m disappointed because we played so well during the regular season; it’s tough to go out in the first round.”

But the sophomore rearguard is already looking for an even stronger performance next year.

“We start off-season training next week—hit the gym and everything,” McManus said.

Fantastic finish for Fordham

Mike Bongiorno of New City, a graduate of Clarkstown South High School where he also played football, came through in the clutch as a member of the Fordham University 4x400 relay team at the Atlantic 10 track and field championships in Kingston, R.I.

The Rams came through in the meet’s final event to seal a bronze medal, topping an outstanding overall effort that produced the school’s best-ever finish in the championships.

Fordham took second in the relay in 3:19.99 behind Nick Deligatti, a junior from Hicksville; Bongiorno, a sophomore; Sean Atkinson, a sophomore from Brooklyn; and senior Chris Lyons of Roslyn Heights. The performance earned them second-team all-Atlantic 10 recognition.

The wild finish lifted the Rams into third place by just a point over perennial powerhouses Massachusetts and Temple. The University of Rhode Island edged out the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 158-155, snapping Charlotte’s three-year hold on the A-10 crown.

Fordham totaled 88 points, followed by UMass and Temple (87), La Salle (60), Saint Louis (45), Saint Joseph’s (37), Richmond (35) and Xavier (27).

Shepard in the swim

Freshman Andrew Shepard of West Nyack was kept quite busy as the College of Mount Saint Vincent swim team placed fifth at the Skyline Conference Championships in Old Westbury.

The Clarkstown South alum was fifth in the 500-yard freestyle, sixth in the 1,000-yard freestyle, took fourth with the 200-yard medley relay team and also took fourth with the 400-yard freestyle relay team.

The Dolphins turned it up a notch at the Vassar Spring Invitational in Poughkeepsie, taking fourth, with Shepard placing fourth in the 400-yard IM in a time of 5:31.25. He also placed eighth in the 500 freestyle and a ninth in the 200 freestyle.

Mortarboard musings

• Marc Luxama of Nyack, a student at Westchester Community College in Valhalla, achieved academic all-Mid Hudson Conference accolades in men’s soccer.
• Westchester CC volleyball standout Paulina Quinones, a graduate of Albertus Magnus, was named to the all-Mid Hudson Conference team.
• Women’s hockey Beanpot Championship finalist Harvard prepped for the ECAC playoffs with a thrilling 4-3 loss to No. 2-ranked Cornell in Cambridge, MA. Cornell (26-2-1 overall; 14-5-3 in the conference) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period before Pearl River’s Josephine Pucci scored on an assist from Alisa Baumgartner at 6:22 in the second period. Second-seeded Harvard (15-10-4; 14-5-3 ECAC) hosts seventh-seeded St. Lawrence today (Feb. 25) in the ECAC quarterfinals.
• Oneonta State advanced to the semifinals in the SUNYAC women’s basketball tournament with a decisive 68-53 victory over Plattsburgh. The Red Dragons (20-6) have six freshmen on the roster including guards Mary Gray of Valley Cottage and Kelly Mulligan of Pearl River. Oneonta State meets SUNY New Paltz in a semifinal tonight at Geneseo, which meets Cortland in the other semifinal.
• The Oneonta State wrestling team (13-6-1) competes in the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference championships tomorrow (Feb. 26) at Ithaca. Sophomore David Bailen, a Suffern High graduate, represents the Red Dragons in the 125-pound weight class.
• Dominican College clinched the third seed in the upcoming CACC men’s basketball tournament by beating Nyack, 76-54, at Bowman Gymnasium. Chargers guard Leon Porter led all scorers with 14 points while senior center Almin Hodzic had 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds. David Cerant led Nyack with 11 points, and Ryan Woodard pulled down seven rebounds. Dominican wraps up the regular season tonight at home against Goldey-Beacom College on senior night. Game time is set for 8 p.m.
• The St. Thomas Aquinas College women’s basketball team, seeded No. 1 in the East Coast Conference tourney, closes out the regular season tomorrow at Queens College at 5 p.m. The Lady Spartans beat Bridgeport, 57-44, at Aquinas Hall to raise their record to 20-7 overall and 15-4 in the ECC. Theresa Dowling of Congers, the only senior on the team, was honored in a pre-game ceremony.

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