I spoke to Section 1 chairman Jennifer Simmons today, who said at today’s meeting that no decision about the semifinal games being held at the County Center was made.

Simmons confirmed that Section 1 and Westchester County did meet, and they were now “going back” to continue to work out a revised plan to have the boys and girls games at the arena.

The sides will meet again soon, although Simmons wouldn’t say exactly when.

“I’m hoping it’s sooner rather than later,” she said. “There’s a lot of planning still. But nothing has been finalized.”

Simmons didn’t seem too thrilled to be talking to me, which is probably a result of the public pressure being put on Section 1 to make sure a deal gets done. Personally, all I care about is a resolution being made and basketball being played at the County Center like it should.

When I asked if her if she was “optimistic” a deal would be made, she wouldn’t comment.

“All I can say is that, as of today, no decision was made.”

I’ll post more details as I get it.

Please take a moment and head over to our Gameday Central blog and vote on the Gameface of the week. You can get there by clicking this link.

Sean Harris of Mount Vernon, Ryan Sullivan of Albertus and Mark Rudovic of Mahopac are among this week’s nominees.

When I covered Iona College’s run to the NCAA tournament three years ago, one of the good people I got to know was Gaels assistant coach Vin Parise. Vin stepped down as an assistant after last season to pursue his dream of being college basketball analyst.

Vin is doing radio for Iona College and Wagner, and has a new blog where he’ll discuss high school and college basketball in the Metropolitan area. It’s not your everyday basketball blog that obsesses over where kids are committing to college. It’s more basketball analysis and news. I recommend checking it out.

Also, I hope you’re also taking a look each day at the HoopKnight blog, the Mount Vernon blog being run this season by Chris Kieffer and Colin Crowell. They’re Columbia Journalism School students and covering Mount Vernon hoops after the budget crisis is a project for their new media class.

Chris and Colin have posted a ton of articles, videos and photos from the season.

It’s exams week, so the schedule is short (and rather uninspiring). Here are my picks for the week. I had a hard time choosing games to predict, so offer any you feel I missed:

Monday
Briarcliff at Lincoln Hall, 5:45 p.m.: Lincoln Hall had its momentum stalled with Friday’s loss to Pleasantville, a team it seemingly can never beat. The United should overwhelm the Bears, who don’t have the bodies to match up inside. PREDICTION: LINCOLN HALL 64, BRIARCLIFF 55
Kennedy at Rye, 4:30 p.m.: The Gaels have stumbled in the last two games, losing convincingly to Lincoln Hall and Yorktown. They’re still a good defensive team and will throw a lot of different looks at Rye’s Matt O’Neill. PREDICTION: KENNEDY 52, RYE 46

Tuesday
Edgemont at Ardsley, 6 p.m.: This game is vital to both teams playoffs hopes. Edgemont has picked it up of late behind junior guard Billy Kreinik. They’ve won five straight, including a 10-point win over Ardsley last week. Something tells me, though, Ardsley is poised to get even. PREDICTION: ARDSLEY 53, EDGEMONT 49

Thursday
Ramapo at North Rockland, 6 p.m.: The pressure has to be mounting on North Rockland as its profile is raised. Ramapo has played better. But the Red Raiders are too mature and well-coached to get tripped up. PREDICTION: NORTH ROCKLAND 63, RAMAPO 53

Friday
Mount Vernon at New Rochelle, 4:15: One of the biggest games of the season. It’s always tight when these team meet at New Rochelle and I expect this to be the same. New Rochelle has been solid over the last month and have the depth to match up. The Knights, though, are too much with Sherrod Wright and Jabarie Hinds. PREDICTION: MOUNT VERNON 70, NEW ROCHELLE 63
Plesantville at Croton-Harmon, 6:45 p.m.: The Panthers have begun to hit their stride, winning four of five. They handled a talented Croton team last week and should be able to use the same remedy this time around. PREDICTION: PLEASANTVILLE 57, CROTON-HARMON 50

Sunday
Bishop Ford at Iona Prep, noon: In a game rescheduled from Wednesday, this rematch of the CHSAA A championship should also be a preview of this year’s final. Ford has the league’s top player in Chaz Williams. But he’s only one player going up against the most offensively-balanced team in the area. Iona wins this. PREDICTION: IONA PREP 68, BISHOP FORD 63
Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers vs. Cardinals: This might be the least intriguing Super Bowl in my lifetime. But hey, it’s the Super Bowl so we at least have to pretend we’re interested. Arizona’s time has run out and the two week layoff will kill their momentum. Pittsburgh’s defense is just too good. PREDICTION: STEELERS 24, CARDINALS 10

Officials from Section 1 and Westchester County Parks will hold a special meeting on Monday to renegotiate — and likely adopt — a plan to hold all semifinal and final basketball games at the Westchester County Center, several inside sources have confirmed.

As we reported in late November, Section 1 decided to trim Championship Week from seven days at the County Center to two because of state-wide budget cuts. The semifinals would instead be held at the higher seeds.

But, in light of public scrutiny and political pressure, Section 1 and the County will reconvene on Monday with hopes of coming up with a revised plan. According to officials, Section 1 lost $12,000 on last year’s tournament. The sides will figure out a way to absorb some of that expected cost for this year and avoid only have two days at the sacred venue.

According to the people I’ve spoken to, Section 1 will likely save part of the cost because of the generosity of a few individuals (who I won’t mention now). Basically, they’re people who were paid to work at the event during the week — and are now willing to volunteer in order to have the event. Those people, in my opinion, are crazy. But we should all be eternally grateful to them if this plan is adopted on Monday.

None of this, of course, is official until then. Would it shock me if something fell through at the last minute? Not at all. But keep your fingers crossed. It sounds like this is going to get done.

I’ll keep you updated at this goes along.

If you haven’t already, check out my article in today’s paper on Sherrod Wright leading Mount Vernon past Jefferson (Brooklyn) in the opening round of the SNY Invitational. The Knights will face St. Raymond in tonight’s championship back at NYU at 8 p.m. The game will be aired live on SNY.

Harold Gutman of TJN did a nice story on Matt O’Neill of Rye, who won the Con Ed Scholar-Athlete Award this week. O’Neill was a player I was very impressed with when I saw him two weeks ago. Read the article and you’ll learn Matt’s a pretty good kid, too.

This Missouri TV station had some highlights of New Rochelle’s loss to Glendale H.S.

I’ll be back in the city tonight for the Mount Vernon-St. Ray’s game. Tune in to SNY and come back with comments. I finally got wireless internet down there late last night and will be checking the blog throughout.

Many of you tuned in to SNY and watched Mount Vernon’s shaky 76-65 win over Jefferson of Brooklyn in tonight’s opening round of the SNY Invitational at NYU’s Coles Sports Center.

Good win and great effort by Sherrod Wright — on paper.

The Knights were down 10 points late in the third quarter and playing about as carelessly as I’ve seen them play in, well, maybe my life. Wright responded by hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer in the third and scoring 13 points in the fourth as Mount Vernon pulled it out.

Wright had 32 points on 13 of 18 shooting with 10 rebounds and five steals. Was it the best game I’ve seen him have? Not even close. The numbers just made it look that way.

Even Wright himself said he didn’t play all that great. He did have six turnovers and he did miss a string of fourth-quarter free throws that could have been damaging.

Mount Vernon coach Bob Cimmino would probably disagree with both of us. He had some interesting comments after the game:

“This is where he got his rep; he’s a New York City ballplayer,” Cimmino said. “I think there are plenty of coaches in the Big East who are missing the boat.

“The Blackberrys should be buzzing right now,” Cimmino added. “There should be head coaches around the country calling (assistant coaches) and asking ‘What are you doing? Why haven’t you been to 100 California Road?”

A win is a win and Mount Vernon now gets to advance to tomorrow’s final against St. Raymond, which just beat Boys & Girls. The game is at 8 p.m., both on SNY and in person back here at Coles. It’s a great venue, located on the corner of Bleeker and Mercer, one of my favorite areas of the city. If you’re not doing anything tomorrow, I suggest coming down.

Some other big games from the night:

– Pleasantville came back from a 10-point deficit to beat Lincoln Hall yet again. That’s three times this season for the Panthers. – New Rochelle lost to Glendale by three in the semifinals of the Missouri Eye Institute Winter Classic – Stepinac knocked off Mount St. Michael—yet again – North Rockland edged Clarkstown South, 43-37. Good chance North Rockland doesn’t lose again and is the No. 1 seed in Class AA. Imagine that?

Before I hop on the train and head down to Manhattan for Mount Vernon’s game, let’s quickly look back on last night:

Albertus Magnus 51, Pearl River 30: What a comeback by the Falcons, beating Pearl River handily after losing to the Pirates in OT last week. Jane McManus has the story in today’s Journal News. Is this a trend with Albertus? Lose to a team once and then come back and beat them soundly? They did it to Nanuet and have now done it to Pearl River. It could be that, for a Class B team to beat Albertus in the playoffs, they might be better having not played them first.
Pelham 54, Ardsley 52: Not surprising that two teams that have rollercoastered through the regular season play a game this close. Pelham got 25 points and 13 rebounds from Greg Bratone, who has played so well of late. As has Harry Highland, who had 14 points.
Briarcliff 63, Westlake 48: The Bears earned victory No. 8, beating a Westlake squad it got crushed by a few weeks back. Najee Forte had 21 points for Briarcliff and Bobby Ronan added 14. When the Bears have somebody step up and score points besides Forte, they’re a tough matchup.
Irvington 49, Hastings 48: Dan Glantz made a put-back at the buzzer to lift the Bulldogs. Crucial win for Irvington and its playoff hopes. I watched these teams play last week and didn’t think Irvington would be able to Hastings’ big men in the rematch. I was wrong.
Rye 61, Byram Hills 48: When Matt O’Neill takes over a game, there aren’t many teams on Rye’s schedule who can do anything about it. The senior guard scored 28 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. He was also 9 of 12 from the line (which I bet he wasn’t even that happy about). O’Neill is truly one of the most under-appreciated players in Section 1 this season.

Mount Vernon will face Jefferson (Brooklyn) in tonight’s opening round of the SNY Invitational at NYU’s Coles Sports Center in Manhattan. The game tips off at 6 p.m. with Boys & Girls-St. Raymond to follow at 8.

The games will be aired live on SNY, as will Saturday’s second round. The consolation is at 6 and the championship is at 8. Pretty neat to get to play on television on back to back days like that.

SNY is really trying to build up this event, as you can see if you visit the comprehensive website. On the site, by the way, you can enter a contest to win a MacBook computer. I have one. It’s definitely worth going on and trying to win.

If you plan to go to the games, the Coles Sports Center is located on 181 Mercer Street in Manhattan. I’ll be there both nights.

Just got word that New Rochelle defeated Warrensburg (Mo.) tonight, 75-52, in the opening round of the Missouri Eye Institute Winter Classic at Glendale H.S.

The win puts New Rochelle into Friday’s semifinal against host school Glendale at 7 p.m.

Stanley Laurent led the Huguenots with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Travis Wright added 11 points and A.J. Burton scored 10.

For more stats and info click on the New Rochelle basketball website. They’ll be entering the full statistics later tonight.

New Rochelle left early yesterday morning for Missouri to compete in the Missouri Eye Institute Winter Classic.

It’s a three-game event held at Glendale High School. The tournament has a great website, which you can view by clicking here.

New Rochelle, winners of six straight, will take on Warrensburg H.S. tonight at 8:30 p.m. local time. Warrensburg, which would be a very small Class AA school in New York, is 9-4. They have a 6-foot-7 forward in Jarad Askren, who is averaging around 12 points and 10 rebounds per game.

If New Rochelle wins, it would likely play host Glendale in the semifinals. Tough matchup facing the host team at home on a Friday night. Glendale is 11-5, losing to national power Word of God (N.C.) by three and St. Raymond by seven. Not too shabby.

Glendale has all its stats and information on MaxPreps, which you can view here.

I’ll be updating the scores and stats on the blog over the next few days. For full stats, click on the New Rochelle basketball website.

We had wall-to-wall coverage of last night’s Peekskill-Poughkeepsie basketball game.

Peekskill beat Poughkeepsie, 70-61, to give coach Lou Panzanaro his 500th career win. He’s 500-102 in 26 seasons. Peekskill senior Ralph Watts scored his 1000th career point in the game, too.

I also had a feature story in today’s paper on Mount Vernon forward Odayne Clarke. The 6-foot-5 senior has endured a rough year with back and knee injuries, which were the main reason you saw a significant drop in his playing time and production last season.

Remember, he started every game for Mount Vernon as a sophomore when it won a state championship. He’s healthy now after two knee surgeries this summer and playing very well.

If you have a moment, check out both stories. You can also watch the replay of last night’s Peekskill-Poughkeepsie game on our Mogulus site.

Let’s take a quick tour through Wednesday’s biggest games:

Valhalla 55, Blind Brook 47: It’s now official — Valhalla is the favorite to win Class C. And the Vikings are eight-point favorites the rest of the way after beating top contender Blind Brook thanks to stellar efforts from James Jensen and Oasiris Yates. Yates had 20 points, including three 3s, and Jensen had 14. Jensen also did a great job defending the paint as Joe and Rob Magliano combined for 20 points. For Blind Brook to overcome Valhalla in their next meeting, those two will have to carry the Trojans.
Lincoln Hall 60, Kennedy 40: Impressive victory for the United, beating a Kennedy team that came into the game hot. Sir Aaron Taylor had 23 points and 17 rebounds, and even knocked down three 3-pointers. Taylor is really developing into an excellent all-around player and he’s only begun to tap his full potential. He should earn a scholarship.
Nanuet 58, Sleepy Hollow 56, OT: You’ve got to hand it to Sleepy Hollow. The Horsemen have struggled most of the season. But they picked up a nice win over Byram Hills on Monday and nearly beat a very good Nanuet squad. They also played Albertus extremely tight a few weeks back. Tom Hanney had 13 points for Nanuet.
Yonkers 66, Tappan Zee 54: The Bulldogs picked up their 10th win of the season, beating a quality TZ squad. Marc Baclija had 16 points for Yonkers, which has a chance to nab a home playoff game if it keeps up this pace.
Gorton 58, Lincoln 53: Gorton gets a nice bounce-back victory and Chris Ranglin scored 38 points, including the 1,000th of his career.
Dobbs Ferry 73, Tuckahoe 48: And it wasn’t even as close as the score indicates. Dobbs led 39-17 at the half. Say what you want about Dobbs’ schedule. These guys show up to play every night. There never seems to be any sort of letdown. Rob Alexander, a noted Tuckahoe-killer in football, had 14 points for the Eagles.
Lakeland 73, Horace Greeley 64: Speaking of teams that always show up to play, Lakeland wins yet again. The Hornets are 11-1 thanks to another balanced scoring effort. They opened up the lead before the half and took a 16-point advantage into the fourth. Chris Fazio scored 19 points. Adam Honig scored 25 for Greeley (8-4).
Pawling 56, North Salem 50: Look out Class B. Pawling is storming up the ranks here. North Salem is a quality team offensively. For Pawling to hold the Tigers to just 50 points is saying something.
White Plains 47, Scarsdale 28: Let’s hope they didn’t charge admission to this one. Not the prettiest game but a win for White Plains, nonetheless. White Plains dug back to its defensive roots and held Scarsdale to four single-digit quarters. Missed free throws helped. Darrell Ward had 16 points for the Tigers.
Beacon 57, Hen Hud 50: The Sailors got behind early and never quite recovered. Tough setback for Hen Hud. It’s 6-8 with six games to play, needing two wins to earn a Class A playoff spot with Croton, Brewster, Panas, Ossining, Peekskill and Harrison remaining. Will they get there?

Just walked in the door a few moments ago after finishing up my story on tonight’s Peekskill-Poughkeepsie game. Peekskill won, as probably know, 70-61 to give coach Lou Panzanaro his 500th career victory.

Unfortunately what will be lost in all this time was just how well Poughkeepsie played. It had Peekskill on its heels throughout the was victimized by a slew of late turnovers. Those are things that plague young and inexperienced teams like Poughkeepsie. But I was very impressed with Deyvon Whitaker and Brandon James. To stand up to Peekskill at home on a night like this says a lot about this team.

When they meet again in a few weeks at Poughkeepsie, I just might have to predict a different outcome. (Yeah, I said it).

Two other things I wanted to mention before I go replenish myself with fluids and try to finally shake this cold:

1. Say what you want about Poughkeepsie coach Brian Laffin (and he gets criticized at times on this very blog), but the guy is a total class act. To agree a few weeks ago to switch this game from Poughkeepsie to Peekskill was an incredible gesture. But he was so humble and praiseworthy of Panzanaro during and after the game. You really cannot say enough about the guy. A true class act and I hope the people that crammed into Peekskill tonight realize that, without him, witnessing that game likely wouldn’t have been possible.

2. Darien Thomas is an absolute stud. We talk so much about Ralph Watts — who got his 1,000th career point tonight and scored 24 in the games — and Daquan Brickhouse. But go back and watch the replay of that game and tell me Thomas didn’t win that game with his hustle on the glass and defense inside in the second half. The things he does and the way he maneuvers without the ball is superb. It allows him to always be around the basket and get put-backs. I’ve always been a fan of him. But tonight was really impressive.

OK, going to chug a gallon of ginger ale after using my last breaths on the broadcast. Hopefully you enjoyed watching. If you didn’t, please check out our Mogulus site and watch the replay.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to post them here.

Be sure to have your computer set to our broadcast of tonight’s Peekskill vs. Poughkeepsie boys basketball game as we wrap the game coverage into Varsity Central Live.

Coverage starts live at 6 p.m. I’ll be there for the game as Peekskill coach Lou Panzanaro goes for career win No. 500.

Here’s what the rundown should be:

6 p.m.: Live broadcast starts with my introduction. If you have any quest

6:30 p.m.: The game will tip-off (barring any delays from the JV game)

7:15 p.m.: It should be halftime around this time. I’ll come back on the air with updates, news and to answer any of your questions VC Live-style. So please make sure you submit them!

7:25 p.m.: Game will resume

8:15 p.m.: The game should be over by this point. I’ll return with postgame thoughts and, if Peekskill wins, hopefully an interview with Panzanaro. I’ll also be answering any other questions you might have.

The schedule above could be ambitious but we’ll do our best. Throughout the game I’ll likely check in with news and notes, and hopefully some interviews with those close to Panzanaro.

So check it out as we go live from Peekskill all night. Your questions and comments would be appreciated.