News & notes

The Albany Patroons became champions of The Basketball League on Friday, beating Yakima, 122-111 in front of over 2200 fans at the Washington Avenue Armory. Yakima fired their coach/GM after game 2 on Tuesday due to some untimely remarks on social media, which pretty much sealed the Sun Kings' fate. Shadell Millinghaus, who'd played his high school ball at Schenectady & Troy High, led Albany with 37 points, and was named playoff MVP.

The lure of a championship was what bolstered attendance, but at the end of the day, Albany is still a college/high school town now, not a pro town, arena football aside. Speaking of which......
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The Albany Empire made it two in a row on Saturday, avenging last year's playoff ouster by outlasting Washington, 36-27. QB Tommy Grady had five TD passes to lead the way. The Empire go on the road in week 3, and will face Philadelphia, also 2-0.

If I'm not mistaken, John Imbriale, the play by play announcer on the AFL Network, may be the same guy who's been the #2 announcer for the New York Racing Association for years. Stay tuned.
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Troy High completed a season sweep of Albany in lacrosse on Saturday afternoon with a 9-8 win at Picken Field. Per the Albany Times-Union, Troy is 2-8 overall, with three games unreported (Shen, Colonie, Columbia). I'm going to guess that the record conceivably is actually 2-11, but who knows? Individual scorers for Troy were not reported as of this writing. Apparently, the issue at Troy is that there aren't enough people willing to volunteer their time, win or lose, to ensure that game results are reported to the local press. That culture needs to change, preferably yesterday.