CENTRAL NEW YORK – As they meet Wednesday at Buddy Wleklinski Court following last Friday’s weather postponement, the Christian Brothers Academy and Bishop Grimes boys basketball teams both looked for a signature win at each other’s expense, the Brothers having won the first encounter 62-56 on Jan. 13.
Unable to play Grimes, CBA was on the court a night later against Section V’s Rochester Aquinas, looking to improve to 13-4 on the season
Before all this, Grimes continued to state its case as the Class A sectional playoffs favorite, especially when it rallied to beat Section II’s Mekeel Christian 73-71 in double overtime.
Having never beat Mekeel before, the Cobras looked, for a while, to again get beat when it trailed 46-38 through three quarters. But Grimes outscored Mekeel 20-12 in the fourth to get it to OT.
Neither side scored much in the first extra period, but in the second OT the Cobras, by a 10-8 margin, pulled it out, Deng Garang again leading the attack with 27 points,
Balanced behind Garang, Grimes saw Nate Abernethy put in 15 points, with Jon Corl and Erik Wall both getting into double figures, too, earning 11 points apiece.
This came after a Jan. 28 game where CBA faced its Albany CBA counterparts and pulled out a 69-61 victory, using a 17-6 push through the third quarter as the decisive blow.
Again leading the way for the Brothers, Braeden Burns had 23 points, with Luke Boule picking up 16 points. Steve DeRegis finished with 12 points and Will Harrigan added eight points.
Exactly one week later, CBA faced Rochester Aquinas and took over in the game’s middle stages, outscoring the Irish 36-19 in the second and third periods on the way to a 70-45 victory and improving to 13-4.
Though Burns, with 25 points, was the only Brothers player to score in double figures, all 10 players that saw action got on the scoresheet, Ethan Harris getting a season-best nine points as Boule added eight points. DeRegis and Jason Brunson had six points apiece.
Grimes returned to the court Sunday against Section II’s Amsterdam and dropped a thrilling 81-80 decision, a game close all the way through as the Cobras were not quite able to a fourth-quarter advantage.
Garang still had 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists, with four teammates reaching double figures. Corl grabbed 16 rebounds to go with his 12 points as Wall got 14 points and four assists. Abernethy and Jon Farstler both had 11 points, Abernethy adding six assists, but Grimes’ record fell to 14-4.
