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Alannah Driscoll-Sbar

Alannah Driscoll-Sbar of Northampton has signed her national letter of intent to play women's basketball at Division I Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck, N.J.

The Blue Devils senior, who helped her team to its first-ever state Division 1 championship last season, verbally committed to coach Pete Cinella in July, citing the school's academics as a good fit for her. She made a formal commitment by signing the letter on Friday.

"I'm glad to have" the process come to an end, Driscoll-Sbar said Monday. "It's one less thing to have to think about."

Cinella, who is entering his second year with the Knights, previously coached at Division II American International College in Springfield. His AIC teams reached the NCAA Tournament nine times in 14 years, including the national championship game in 2006.

Last year, Fairleigh-Dickinson was 13-17 and 9-9 in the Northeast Conference. Former Central star center Esther Wallace is playing for the Knights this season.

Driscoll-Sbar said she has been training a lot in preparation for both her senior high school season and her college career.

"I've been working out a lot, shooting, ball-handling, trying to get stronger," she said. "The college game is so much more physical. I have to be ready for it."

Driscoll-Sbar averaged a team-high 14 points during the regular season as a junior and increased her production to 16.2 points per game in the postseason. She scored 20 points against Andover in the 50-37 victory to win the state championship.

The 5-foot-11 forward enters the 2008-09 season with 754 career points. Practice begins Dec. 1.

SANTONI TO DEBUT IN AMHERST - One of Driscoll-Sbar's former teammates, Iris Santoni who graduated in May from Northampton High, will make her collegiate debut near her hometown this weekend.

The 5-foot-4 guard, who scored 676 career points at Northampton, is playing at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. The Saints open their season against Lehman at the Amherst College Tip-Off Tournament at 8 p.m. Saturday night. St. Lawrence will play again at either 2 p.m. or 4 p.m. Sunday.

LAFOND, JURKOWSKI TO ELMS - Two local players, Tomie Lafond of Hatfield and Jess Jurkowski of Belchertown, transferred together from Holyoke Community College to Elms College. The pair of guards join a Blazers squad that has no one returning from last year's backcourt.

They will join freshmen Carolyn Talmadge (Wilbraham), Misty Kology (Ludlow) and Christina Korney (Feeding Hills) as local players looking for playing time at guard.

"We have a lot of local players who have competed against each other on the high school and AAU levels for awhile now," seventh-year head coach Laura Habacker said of her team, which has nine newcomers on its 13-player roster.

Jim Pignatiello can be reached at jpignatiello@gazettenet.com. For more information, go to the high school sports blog at www.gazettenet.com/blog/hs-sports.