Ideal, perfect, historic, special – a whole lot of adjectives could get applied to what the Christian Brothers Academy basketball teams accomplished Tuesday night in its pair of games against Bishop Ludden.
Not only did the Brothers gain control of the “Holy War” for 2020 with wins in each of these two contests, it saw Brooke Jarvis surpass Leanne Ockenden as the CBA girls program’s all-time leading scorer.
For the state Class A no. 19-ranked girls Brothers, the initial focus was topping the same Ludden side it held off 52-47 barely two weeks earlier.
That didn’t prove easy as, after a quiet start for both sides, the Gaelic Knights inched into a 22-21 halftime lead, only to see CBA roar back in front during the third quarter and stay there.
Two big things happened in the final period as the Brothers pulled away to win 48-37. First, Ludden’s top player, Amarah Streiff, was sidelined by an ankle injury, having scored 15 points on this night.
Then, with 3:37 to play, Jarvis lined up a 3-point shot and swished it. Though she didn’t initially realize it, the crowd roar and the announcement from her father, Rick, quickly told her what that meant.
Jarvis was now alone atop the CBA scoring list, having moved past the 1,438 points Ockenden earned while playing for the Brothers from 2007 and 2010.
The game was stopped to recognize Jarvis, and then CBA closed it out as Jarvis and Leana Heitmann each finished with 14 points.
Tori Hall had nine points, with Emily Hall adding eight points as those seniors, along with Jarvis and Maura Clare Conan, were honored in a Senior Night ceremony before the game.
As this went on, across town the boys “Holy War” resumed, and CBA, who had required a last-second basket from Colin Kelly to win the first encounter on Jan. 26, prevailed by a bigger margin here, 67-57, for its eighth win in a row.
Every time Ludden wanted to push the tempo, the Brothers wouldn’t let them, using its trademark man-to-man defense to make the Gaelic Knights work on every single possession.
Despite this, CBA only led 45-40 going to the fourth quarter, but it played well down the stretch, never letting Ludden put together the sustained run it needed.
Dan Anderson led all scorers as he earned 25 points, helped by double-figure efforts from Kelly, Sam Haas (10 points each) and Jason Boule, who got 12 points.
On Ludden’s side, Monte Johnson got 15 points as Jarin Beauford had 14 points and Nazier Kinsey added 13 points, but CBA did a terrific job on Mykell Kaigler, holding him to eight points.
Best of all for CBA, it did not have a letdown when it returned home to face Westhill Friday night, the Brothers grabbing control in the second half on the way to defeating the Warriors 64-41.
During those last two periods, CBA outscored Westhill 38-21, with Anderson and Kelly at the forefront as Anderson picked up 19 points and Kelly got 17 points. Haas added seven points as the Brothers’ defense held the Warriors’ top scorer, Zach Brown, to just eight points.
