Leading off today: With only one senior starter to replace, pencil Irvington in as the small school to watch in girls basketball next season. And they may need to confirm that the school trophy case is large enough to also accommodate the 2013 NYSPHSAA championship hardware.

   Not that the Bulldogs gone unnoticed thus far.

   They won the NYSPHSAA girls championship last season and repeated Sunday in devastating fashion by beating Aquinas 91-52 in Class B at Hudson Valley Community College as three champions apiece were crowned in the boys and girls tournaments in the Section 2 area.

   Tournament MVP Lexi Martins had than 27 points and 16 rebounds, Brittni Lai chipped in with 30 points and seven steals, and Marley Giddins posted 18 points, 14 rebounds and three steals. Martins, Lai and starter Ryan McMahon are sophomores, and Giddins is a junior.

   Irvington put up 30 points in the second quarter alone and was scarcely challenged after opening the game on a 10-0 run.

   "Last year we were all seniors," 12th-grader Kelly O'Donnell, the other starter, told The Journal News. "This year we're young, and to come back here and prove to everyone that we can do it again is just incredible. It's an amazing feeling."

   Irvington is 51-2 since the start of last season entering next weekend's Federation tournament in Albany.

   Oliva saga winding down: Former Christ the King basketball coach Bob Oliva will plead guilty to sexual abuse charges when he appears in court in Boston on April 4, The New York Daily News reported.

   The charges stem from accusations by a family friend, who was 14 at the time, over a trip to Boston decades ago. Oliva has consistently denied the allegations for three years but was indicted by a Massachusetts grand jury last March.

   The paper reported Oliva will have to acknowledge in court that he sexually abused the teen and that he will probably have to register as a sex offender and stay away from children in exchange for avoiding prison.

   Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk County (Mass.) District Attorney, would not confirm or deny that a plea deal had been reached. "Every defendant has a right to plead guilty at any time," Wark said. "We are prepared to

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take the case to trial if necessary."

   Oliva resigned from Christ the King in January 2009, citing heart problems caused by the strain of the sex abuse allegations. He won 549 games and four CHSAA championships in 27 seasons.

   "Oliva may have conned 8 million New Yorkers that he was a coaching icon, but he knew that he couldn't convince 12 members of a Boston jury that he wasn't a pedophile," Sam Albano, a former friend who testified before the Boston grand jury, told the paper.

   Heath to Canisius: Josiah Heath, a 6-foot-9 center from Irondequoit who indicated less than two weeks ago he wasn't very far along in choosing a college, has given a verbal commitment to play basketball for Canisius, a source told The Buffalo News.

   Heath averaged 24 points and 16 rebounds as a senior. His team pushed Jamestown to overtime in the NYSPHSAA quarterfinals last weekend in Rochester.

   Star athlete dies: Carmen Congelli, a Marlboro star softball player, died Saturday after a long battle with rhabomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue.

   Congelli was diagnosed in September 2008 and missed all but five games of the following softball season. She returned last spring to earn Mid-Hudson Athletic League player of the year honors after hitting .450 with 13 RBIs for the Iron Dukes. Congelli also played soccer and basketball.

   On Dec. 14 of last year, she was honored by having her number retired.