With a pair of solid wins, the Bishop Ludden girls basketball team pushed its early-season mark to 4-1 — and a perfect 4-0 to tie Westhill for first place in the OHSL Liberty division.
The Gaelic Knights found no difficulty bouncing back from its Dec. 5 defeat to Holy Angels (Buffalo), roaring past Skaneateles 75-20 last Tuesday night in Geddes.
All the Lakers could manage in the first half was six points in the face of Ludden’s full-court pressure. As if that wasn’t enough, the Gaelic Knights put together a 25-5 run in the third quarter.
Again, the outside shots fell, as Ludden hit on 10 3-pointers to complement Natalie Barletta, whose 17 points nearly matched the entire Skaneateles roster.
Ashley Cianfriglia hit on four of those treys, finishing with 14 points, while Kayla Kibling drilled three 3-pointers to account for most of her 11 points. Lauren Roy came off the bench to earn 10 points, while Bella Knapp got eight points and Michelle Roesch seven points.
Ludden had a more difficult time in Thursday night’s trip to Hannibal, needing a big second half to rally past the Warriors 62-53.
Fueled by Tayler Sorell’s 3-pointers and Sam April’s inside play, Hannibal tore right through the Gaelic Knights’ vaunted defense in the first half, and appeared to seize control as it carried a 29-20 lead to the break.
Gradually, Ludden would strike back, erasing more than half the deficit in an active third quarter, then really taking off down the stretch, its pressure wearing down the Warriors as the Gaelic Knights outscored them 24-11 those last eight minutes.
What’s more, Ludden pulled off this comeback without a heavy reliance on 3-pointers, hitting just two of them all night. Cianfriglia had 20 points, nine of them on the free-throw line, while Roesch earned 14 points and Roy again hit double figures with 11 points.
Kibling (eight points) and Natalie Barletta (seven points) made up for the struggles of Knapp, who had just one free throw. Hannibal saw Sorell earn 23 points and April 16 points.
Now Ludden rested for a bit, off from game action for more than a week until this Friday’s visit to Jordan-Elbridge and a key Dec. 23 showdown with Marcellus.