Iona Hosts Siena on New Year’s Eve

The Iona College men’s basketball team will close out 2021 with a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference matinee against Siena College on Dec. 31 at 1 p.m. in New Rochelle.

ESPN3 will televise the game.

The Gaels, coached by Rick Pitino, have won four in a row and are 10-2 overall, 2-0 MAAC. Iona is coming off an 11-point victory over the University of Delaware and last lost to No. 4 Kansas at Walt Disney World on Nov. 28. The Gaels upset No. 10 Alabama at Disney World, but had its game with No. 16 Seton Hall and former Iona coach Kevin Willard in the Gotham Classic at Madison Square Garden postponed on Dec. 16.

Guard Tyson Jolly and forward Nelly Joseph are the team’s leading scorers at 14.4 and 14.3 points per game, respectively.

Siegrist Leads Villanova

Our Lady of Lourdes High School graduate Maddy Siegrist finished with 24 points and five rebounds for Villanova University in a 66-56 victory over La Salle.

Siegrist, a junior forward, is averaging 21.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game for the Wildcats, who won a third consecutive game to improve to 6-5 overall.

VIllanova hosts 2 p.m. Big East Conference games against Seton Hall on Dec. 31 and St. John’s on Jan. 2. The Wildcats host Connecticut on Jan. 7 in a game being televised by SNY at 7 p.m.

PHOTO BY CHRIS SHERIDAN/CATHOLIC NEW YORK

Anderson, Army Tip Missouri

Cardinal Hayes High School graduate Christian Anderson and the Army football team defeated Missouri, 24-22, on a late 41-yard field goal by Cole Talley at the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, on Wednesday.

Anderson, a senior quarterback, ran for 33 yards and a touchdown, and completed 3 of 4 passes for 60 yards. He finished the season with 713 passing yards and five touchdown passes, and 619 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns.

Army finished the season at 9-4 overall. Missouri dropped to 6-7 overall.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DANNY WILD/ARMY ATHLETICS

Cardinal Hayes Ranked in ESPN Poll

The Cardinal Hayes High School boys basketball team is ranked 19th in this week’s ESPN Top-25 national boys basketball poll.

Cardinal Hayes, which was ranked No. 1 in the New York State Class AA poll by the state sportswriters association, jumped into the ESPN rankings after beating Long Island Lutheran, 56-55, over the weekend.

Long Island Lutheran is 20th in the ESPN poll.

Cardinal Hayes plays at Christ the King next Wednesday. Christ the King is fifth in the state sportswriters poll.

Westchester Knicks Add Griffin

Archbishop Stepinac High School graduate Alan Griffin was acquired from the available player pool by the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League, the team announced.

The Westchester Knicks are affiliated by the NBA’s New York Knicks and play their home games in Bridgeport, Conn.

Griffin, a 6-foot-5 guard, was available for the Knicks after being waived by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Dec. 14. He averaged 1.8 points and 1.5 rebounds in four games with Rio Grande, which acquired Griffin in a trade with the Santa Cruz Warriors prior to the start of the season.

Griffin played two seasons at the University of Illinois and one at Syracuse University before entering the 2021 NBA Draft. He was undrafted and played in the NBA Summer League for the Los Angeles Lakers, averaging 3.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in three games.

Mitchell, Arnett Enter Armory Hall

Jan Mitchell and Steve Arnett were inducted into the Armory New Balance Track & Field Center’s Hall of Fame during Saturday’s seventh annual Energice Coaches Hall of Fame Invitational in Manhattan.

Mitchell has been coaching track and field at Iona Prep since 1975 and The Ursuline School since 1990. He also is the cross country coach at Iona Prep. The two programs have produced over 100 All Americans during his time as head coach at both schools. Iona Prep has won six Catholic high school state titles.

Arnett previously coached at Cardinal Hayes and John F. Kennedy Catholic before assuming his current role at Arlington High School in Freedom Plains, where he has coached cross country and track and field since 1990. His programs have produced a dozen individual state champions and over 100 All Americans. His teams have won 120 league and county championships, and 25 Section 1 cross country titles.

Cardinal Hayes Tips LI Lutheran

Cardinal Hayes High School upset Long Island Lutheran, 56-55, in a battle of nationally ranked boys basketball game on Saturday to raise its record to 6-0 overall.

Tarique Foster finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for Cardinal Hayes, ranked 24th in Max Prep’s national poll. Long Island Lutheran was ranked fourth in the same poll.

Cardinal Hayes’ win came a day after it defeated Iona Prep by 18 points.

Cardinal Hayes hosts Mount St. Michael Academy on Tuesday.

Three Iona Prep Captains Sign to Play Division I Collegiate Football

Three captains of Iona Prep’s 2021 Catholic high school state championship team signed their National Letter of Intent to compete at the NCAA Division I level.

The three signees are Justin Joly, University of Connecticut; Justin Federico, Wagner College; and Scott Becker, Princeton University.

Joly caught 67 passes for 1,033 yards and 13 touchdowns, rushed for 362 yards, and intercepted one pass on defense in 2021. The Brewster resident was named the offensive most valuable player of the state championship game and the Catholic High School Football League’s Senior Bowl.

Federico was a three-year member and two-year starter on the offensive line. The varsity coaching staff named the Putnam Valley resident the most valuable player of the state championship game. Federico sports a 92 overall grade point average.

Becker was a three-year starter on the offensive line. The Briarcliff Manor resident, who has a 97.4 overall grade point average, received the Msgr. Peter’s Memorial Trophy as the top scholar-athlete in the CHSFL and was named the CHSFL’s Lineman of the Year. Becker drew interest from all but one Ivy League school, Army, Navy, Air Force, Holy Cross, Fordham, Lafayette, Sacred Heart, Bryant and Missouri State.

Siegrist Picks Up Honors

Our Lady of Lourdes High School graduate Maddy Siegrist was named the Big East Player of the Week and U.S. Basketball Writers Association National Player of the Week for leading the Villanova University women’s basketball team to victories over James Madison and No. 23 Oregon State.

Siegrist finished with 36 points and 17 rebounds in a win over James Madison on Dec. 9, her first game since missing the previous six due to injury. In an upset win over Oregon State on Dec. 12, she had 28 points and nine rebounds.

The junior forward is averaging 21.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in four games this season for the Wildcats (5-5 overall), who return to action with a non-conference game at La Salle on Dec. 21.

PHOTO COURTESY OF VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY

Siegrist Powers Villanova

Our Lady of Lourdes High School graduate Maddy Siegrist finished with 28 points and nine rebounds for Villanova University in a 56-52 women’s basketball victory over No. 23 Oregon State on Sunday.

Siegrist, a junior forward who had 36 points in her team’s previous win over James Madison University, now has over 1,200 career points.

Siegrist returned to the lineup for the game with James Madison after missing six games with a wrist injury.

In four games this season, she’s averaging 21.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.

Villanova (5-5 overall) will play at La Salle University on Dec. 22 at 1 p.m.

Click here to read a Catholic New York story from 2021 on Siegrist’s one-day summer camp in Poughkeepsie.

PHOTO COURTESY OF VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY