Stefanie Dolson's and Rachel Coffey's names were forever intertwined during their brilliance high school careers.

Dolson's Minisink Valley and Coffey's Kingston squads were always on a collision course to meet in the sectional finals and their individual brilliance was typically the focus of newspaper articles advancing the colossal showdowns.

The rivals will meet again tonight as Dolson is UConn's starting center while Coffey is a guard who has started 12 of 20 games for Syracuse.

"I can't tell you how many times in the newspaper, it was never Minisink vs. Kingston. It was always Stefanie vs. Rachel which I don't understand because we are completely positions but it was always a huge rivalry because it was always us two in the finals," Dolson said. "Any time we played them, it was fun.
"It is interesting. It is always fun to see somebody make it to a college basketball team from the same town or area you are from. I know for me personally, I don't have man of them because of where I am from so to see Rachel there, I am really happy for her and glad that she made it because I knew playing against her in high school that she is a great player. hat she made it to Syracuse and is starting now, I am really proud that, we are not from same town, but from the same area, county."

DESHIELDS HOPING TO BE BACK FOR STATE PLAYOFFS
Upon hearing the news that UConn recruiting target Diamond DeShields suffered a wrist injury that will sideline her for the next few weeks, I reached out to Norcross (Ga.) High coach Angie Hembree to see how long she expects the highly-touted junior to be sidelined.

"Diamond injured her left wrist in our game with North Gwinnett," Hembree said in an e-mail on Friday morning. "This is her non shooting hand and we expect her to be back in time for the playoffs."

Norcross is in Georgia's AAAAA class and the state tournament begins on either Feb. 24 or 25.