A 2-4 start, and wildly inconsistent play, had left the Bishop Grimes boys basketball team in a perilous spot as it made the short trip to Chittenango for a holiday tournament early this week.
But the Cobras turned things around in the Bears’ lair, roaring to the first-place trophy with solid wins over Class C and B foes.
In Monday night’s opening round, Grimes faced Tully, but what seemed like a tall task turned quite manageable for the Cobras as a balanced attack and strong defense keyed a 54-44 victory over the Black Knights.
Steady work in the first half on both ends had Grimes in front, 25-21, but it really won the game in the third quarter, nearly shutting out Tully and holding them to a scant two points.
This led to a 37-23 lead, and Grimes held on even though the Black Knights’ offense awakened in the fourth quarter, largely because it wasn’t as dependent on A.C. Ater as it was earlier this season.
Ater still had nine points, but Mark Shattuck took on a much larger role, finishing with a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds. What’s more, Austin DeRienzo and Luciano Vigliotti joined Ater with nine-point efforts. Tully’s Jason Phelps led all scorers with 17 points.
In the championship game 24 hours later, Grimes faced Solvay, who had beaten the host Chittenango Bears 61-44 in its opening-round game. Just as with Tully, defense and balanced scoring proved valuable as the Cobras took out the Bearcats 53-43.
Though the final score nearly matched the Tully game, the approach was different. Solvay actually led, 19-18, at halftime, and though Grimes went out in front in the third period, it had to wait until the fourth quarter to gain its double-digit margin.
For the most part, Grimes’ defense contained Solvay’s Blake Bagozzi, who had erupted for 42 points (including 11 3-pointers) in an 82-66 win over Altmar-Parish-Williamstown on Dec. 19, as Bagozzi had just 13 points here, he and Jon Scutt (19 points) accounting for most of the Bearcats’ production.
Meanwhile, Vigliotti led the Cobras with 13 points, while Ater and DeRienzo both produced 11 points. Shattuck, with seven points, and Steve King, with nine points, weren’t far behind.
While Grimes got set to appear in the “More Than A Game” Holiday Tournament at SRC Arena this weekend, East Syracuse-Minoa just wanted to recover after struggling in Tuesday night’s 82-58 defeat to Auburn.
It was fast-paced from the outset, and the Spartans couldn’t keep up, ultimately seeing its deficit grow to 44-29 by halftime. Despite all of its efforts, ESM saw Auburn pull further away.
Brandon Breen still had 26 points, while Jah-Meer McDuffie added 11 points and Dave Dabrowski got eight points. Auburn had four players in double figures, with Kevin DiCola producing 21 points and Hakeem Ali 16 points as Jonathan Bell (12 points) and Trevor Ash (10 points) helped out.
