Onondaga — Christian Brothers Academy’s boys basketball team had gone through this passage before. Utica-Notre Dame had not.
Just that fact alone had much to do with the Brothers turning back the Jugglers 61-46 in Saturday night’s Section III Class A championship game at SRC Arena.
Never once displaying the nerves that usually accompany a game of this importance, CBA opened the game on a 13-2 run and, led by tournament MVP Mark Lutz’s 22 points, eased its way to a second consecutive sectional title.
“It’s great to go back-to-back,” said Lutz.
This is no small accomplishment. Perhaps to remind his team of what kind of history they could make, CBA head coach Buddy Wleklinski said that, the day before facing UND, he brought out clippings and pictures of the Brothers’ 11 previous sectional championship teams. That motivation seemed to work.
The Jugglers had come a long way in its first season under new head coach Ryan Goux, who had taken over after 21-year coaching veteran Mike Durr departed following the 2014-15 season. But after playoff wins over Homer, Indian River and Watertown, UND found itself against a different level of competition in the form of CBA.
Still, the Brothers had nearly gone out in the sectional semifinals one week earlier, requiring Nick Aversa’s late heroics to pull out a 49-43 win over Jamesville-DeWitt, and it wasn’t about to let things get as nervous again against UND.
CBA knew it had to key its defense on the Jugglers’ unique guard tandem of senior Jerome Brabham and freshman Jaylen Warmack, and was so effective that UND’s first field goal, on a Brabham 3-pointer, didn’t come until the 1:40 mark of the first quarter.
By then, the Brothers were in total control. Lutz had five points in that initial 13-2 run, and Pride closed out the first quarter by hitting a contested 30-footer at the horn.
continued — “We came out focused,” said Lutz.
Though some of UND’s shots started to fall early in the second quarter, Lutz again supplied a timely answer with five straight points. Overall, Lutz had 12 first-half points and Pride added eight points, helping CBA go into the break with a 32-17 edge.
When the Jugglers took advantage of some sloppy CBA play and went on an 11-0 run early in the third quarter, the Brothers called a time-out.
Lutz said that a flashback to the semifinal with J-D went through his mind, and Wleklinski agreed, but he added that “we used that as a frame of reference. They (the Jugglers) were not going to go down easily”.
After the time-out, CBA quickly reclaimed its double-digit edge and didn’t surrender it again. Though Lutz did most of the damage, Pride was solid, too, finishing with 14 points, while Matt Purcell, Kevin Underwood and James McGlynnn each offered key baskets that helped secure the win.
Now comes the regional round, where CBA will need to win twice in order to get to the March 12-13 state final four.
Wednesday night at 6 p.m., the Brothers face Section X champion Massena at Fayetteville-Manlius, and a win there would get CBA to the regional final next Saturday against Section II champion Troy in the Flying Horses’ hometown at Hudson Valley Community Colllege.
