Though it had to wait through plenty of nervous moments, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls basketball team made it through to get a shot at top seed Indian River in next Saturday’s Section III Class A semifinal.

In fact, the no. 4 seed Red Rams, who held off no. 5 seed Oswego 50-44 in Friday’s sectional quarterfinal, nearly got to meet CBA in that semifinal, but Indian River rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat the Brothers for the third time this season in a 50-48 decision, while East Syracuse Minoa, the no. 7 seed, lost its quarterfinal to no. 2 seed Camden 58-44.

J-D quickly found out that Oswego was far tougher than the side the Rams whipped 66-33 a month earlier, trailing for large portions of the first half before it held the Buccaneers to four points in the second quarter to grab a 24-20 halftime lead.

Each time J-D tried to get away in the second half, Oswego answered. To win, the Rams needed Carly O’Hern to produce 18 points, most of it from four 3-pointers, while Meg Hair threw in 14 points. Alyssa Robens (eight points) and Maddy Frank (seven points) offered support as Clara Culeton led the Bucs with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.

CBA, at full strength, truly believed that it could avenge those two regular-season defeats to Indian River, and then backed up that confidence by holding the Warriors to four points in the first quarter and leading by 12 at one point in the first half.

Though IR recovered, blazing in front 23-21 by halftime, the Brothers regained the lead in the third quarter and grew its lead to 10, seeing Julie Cuomo score 14 points as Natalie Nardella and Nafysa Williams earned 12 points apiece and Paige Nicholson added six points.

Once more, the Warriors fought back, aided by seven combined 3-pointers from Sarah Mattingly (15 points) and Paige Leonard (10 points) as Kammikia Barnes added 14 points. Trailing by seven, CBA made one more charge, pulling within a basket and getting one last possession, but unable to convert a tying or winning basket.

At Camden, ESM had its own great chance, sprinting out to a 16-9 first-quarter lead, but like CBA seeing that lead vanish as the Blue Devils outscored the Spartans 18-9 the rest of the half.

Gradually, Camden got away in the second half behind 20 points from 1,000-point scorer Kiersten Leos, plus 17 points and 10 rebounds from Hayley Kelley. No one at ESM could match those numbers, though Danielle Yates had 12 points and Haley Wise added 11 points. Sydni Eure and Ashley Scalzo earned seven points apiece.