Given a chance to showcase all that it could do, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball team obliged in last Saturday’s Peppino’s Classic at Henninger High School — at least for one half.
The Red Rams’ breathtaking start against Section V power Rush-Henrietta gave the team room to drift off in the second half before finishing off an 86-76 victory over the Royal Comets, the team’s 22nd win in a row.
Brandon Triche, in particular, proved impossible to keep down. The Syracuse University-bound senior finished with 38 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, proving again that, whenever he wants to, Triche can just take over a game.
Triche was up against his AAU teammate, Rush-Henrietta senior Dane Miller, a 6-6 star going to Rutgers next fall, and was quite eager to show Miller, and everyone else at Henninger, the extent of J-D’s capabilities.
From drives to the basket to pull-up 3-pointers, Triche torched the Royal Comets for 26 first-half points. And when he wasn’t scoring, fellow senior Alshwan Hymes was showing off, earning 18 of his 20 points in those first two periods.
All this was part of a first half where J-D led by as many as 24, eventually going to the break with a 52-30 margin that stretched the limits of superlatives.
From that high peak, the Rams couldn’t do anything but surrender the initiative, as Miller got most of his 26 points in the second half. Miller and Mandell Thomas (21 points) excelled as Rush-Henrietta made J-D work all the way to the final buzzer.
Lamar Kearse offered some second-half offense for the Rams, finishing with 12 points, as freshman DaJuan Coleman earned nine points.
At least Rush-Henrietta gave the Red Rams its first serious test of the season, something that didn’t happen in two previous games.
For its home opener last Tuesday night, J-D took on East Syracuse-Minoa and got just about everyone on its roster in the act, nearly reaching the century mark in a 99-41 victory over the Spartans.
From the moment the game started, the Rams sailed through ESM’s defensive resistance, hitting on every conceivable shot. By the end of the third quarter, it was 81-35, and only a free throw kept the Rams from 100.
Hymes led with 15 points, with Kearse adding 13 points. Triche was quite content in a distributor’s role as he finished with 11 points, a number Zach Firestone matched for a career high. Coleman and Demetrius Mitchell each had eight points, with Jailaan Kinsey adding seven points. Each of J-D’s 13 players that saw game action got at least three points.
ESM struggled all night against this overwhelming show of force, as Ken Cannon earned nine points, Sahar Nero added seven points and Zach Whedon got six points.
The Spartans would return home Thursday night and put on quite an offensive show against Fowler, yet still take a 99-82 loss to the Falcons.
Fowler ran from the start and led 28-12 before ESM erupted for 34 points in a wild second quarter. The Falcons kept up enough to still be ahead, 53-46, going into the break.
Gradually, ESM watched Fowler pull away in the second half, even though Greg Raab hit on eight 3-pointers to account for all of his 24 points. Quadear Mike put up 21 points, while Sharif Nero worked his way to 16 points and Tyler Dattmore gained nine points.
To win, the Falcons relied on a potent three-pronged assault where Malcolm Jones earned 26 points, Ron Monroe added 23 points and Chris Gilkes finished with 21 points.
As ESM goes to Fulton and Bishop Ludden this week, the Red Rams pay a visit to Mexico on Tuesday and goes to Cortland on Friday night.
