Following up on its huge win over Henninger last Wednesday, the Christian Brothers Academy continued its recent domination of the “Holy War”.
The Brothers met Bishop Ludden Friday night at Onondaga Community College and prevailed by a score of 50-40, the ninth straight time it has beaten the Gaelic Knights.
From the excitement of Henninger, CBA had to turn right around and play Ludden, a team it had shut down in a 49-27 romp back on Jan. 11 at LeMoyne College.
It promised to be tougher in the rematch. Ludden had its star forward, Frank Smith, back in the lineup, and it was well-rested after a rare 15-day gap between games. Also, the Gaelic Knights were fiercely motivated to end what had become an eight-game skid against CBA.
Sure enough, Smith’s presence changed the battle inside the paint, as he got 11 points and was so effective on the defensive side that Mike Goodman did not have a field goal all night.
Blanked in the first quarter of the first meeting, Ludden scored plenty here and even had a 17-17 tie early in the second period before Rick Montgomery went off with three fouls.
Quickly, CBA switched to full-court pressure, and the Gaelic Knights had a hard time even getting the ball past mid-court, and the game turned in the Brothers’ favor.
At one point, Ludden did not score for more than six minutes, a drought that covered much of the third quarter and allowed CBA to get 14 unanswered points to go ahead 38-20.
Refusing to quit, CBA cut that margin in half, to 40-31, by the fourth quarter, only to have the Brothers get six straight points in response to put it away.
Stefan Thompson and Troy Bullock led the Brothers’ attack with 12 points apiece, as Greg Thomson earned 10 points and Mike Kitts added six points.
CBA endures back-to-back games with Chittenango and Fulton early this week in advance of Friday’s Senior Night special — a doubleheader with Jamesville-DeWitt as the girls play at 6 p.m. and the boys follow. Only advance sale tickets will be accepted for this highly-anticipated regular-season finale.