Prior to last week, area high school winter sports had gone largely unaffected by weather postponements, but an early-week ice storm and a midweek blast of snow brought several changes to the schedule.
Bishop Grimes and Christian Brothers Academy would face each other Friday night, and it proved a close, exciting battle, but the Cobras, with a gigantic fourth-quarter comeback, beat the Brothers 46-41.
Neither side could produce much in the first half. Then, in the third period, CBA appeared to take control, outscoring Grimes 16-9 to establish a 33-27 advantage.
That didn’t last, though. Led by 1,000-point scorer Abby Wilkinson, the Cobras took advantage of extra possessions created by defensive pressure and outscored the Brothers 19-8 the rest of the way.
All told, Wilkinson had 23 points, more than half of it from 12 successful free throws. CBA was more balanced, Brooke Jarvis earning 11 points as Maura Clare Conan got nine points. Emily Hall had seven points, with Kelly Campbell and Leana Hietzmann earning six points apiece.
In Sunday’s Pathfinder Bank Zebra Classic at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall, CBA met “Holy War” rival Bishop Ludden and put up quite a battle all the way to the wire, but lost 62-56 to the Gaelic Knights.
The Brothers led 16-10 through one period, but Ludden caught up by halftime and took the lead early in the second half. CBA hung in there, though, as Jarvis poured in 26 points, while Hall had 13 points and Heitzmann gaining nine points.
Ludden held on in large part due to the work of senior 1,000-point scorer Aurora Deshaies, who got 24 points, helped by 13 points from Lauren Petrie and 10 points from Amarah Streiff.
Only East Syracuse Minoa took to the court last Tuesday in a 50-19 defeat to OsCBA wego where the Spartans were held to five points in the second half. AngelinaThomason led ESM with nine points.
Fayetteville-Manlius had its game with visiting Baldwinsville pushed back 24 hours, but the two sides did meet Wednesday night in a low-scoring affair where the Hornets’ late rally fell short and it lost to the Bees 38-35.
All through the first half, F-M had great difficulty operating against a voracious B’ville defense, including just three points in the second quarter.
Eventually, the Hornets’ deficit grew to 32-21 going to the final period, when it made a furious push, led by Alexis Schneider, who collected 11 rebounds to go with her nine points.
Elena Paolini also had nine points, adding four rebounds and three assists as Lexie Roe, cold from the field, still managed 11 rebounds and Lily Fish had seven points and five rebounds.
But the Bees held on at the end, its modest production spread around as Jordan Roy led with 11 points, with Alex Bednarczyk (nine points), Courtney Clute (eight points) and Hannah Mimas (seven points) close behind.
F-M would host Cicero-North Syracuse Friday night, and struggle on offense in a 51-22 defeat to the Northstars. Only Roe, with eight points, and Schneider, with four points, had more than one field goal for the Hornets.
Meanwhile, ESM faced Fulton and lost 48-29 to the Red Raiders, who outscored the Spartans 31-11 in the second and third quarters, this despite Raychell Underwood leading both sides with 10 points.
