One more good quarter of play, and the Christian Brothers Academy boys basketball team would get a chance at the Section III Class AA championship.
Instead of a strong finish, though, the no. 4 seed Brothers slumped at the worst possible time, allowing top seed Utica Proctor to prevail 49-40 in Tuesday night’s AA semifinal at Whitesboro High School.
So for the second season in a row, CBA saw its title hopes end in the semifinal round, having fallen to Cicero-North Syracuse in this round in 2010.
Given its own preference for man-to-man defense, the Brothers were not fazed one bit when Proctor trotted out its own man-to-man look in the game’s early stages.
CBA instituted a motion offense, which met with success. Either it used back-door cuts for open looks under the basket, or it utilized screens to get open 3-pointers, which CBA hit to build a quick seven-point lead on the Raiders.
Unfazed by this, Proctor closed within a basket, 24-22, by halftime, then changed things up, going to a 2-3 zone defense for the second half. Suddenly CBA saw its open inside looks disappear as Wendell Wright contained Greg Thomson. Worse yet, the outside shots stopped falling, especially in the fourth quarter, where it made only two field goals.
With the game tied 34-34 going to the final frame, the Raiders forced six turnovers and turned to its brother tandem of Walkery and Maurice Mills, who hit on a series of late baskets that made the difference. Walkery managed 16 points, while Maurice mixed in 13 points and six rebounds.
Three players accounted for most of CBA’s production. Shakir Evans led with 14 points, while Rob Cuomo gained 10 points and Thomson, despite his game-long struggles, managed six points.
The Brothers finished with a 15-4 mark, and sees a large senior class, including Thomson, Evans, Cuomo, Andy Drescher, Brian Anderson, Dave Hornstein and Tyler Hamblin depart, giving head coach Buddy Wleklinski a major challenge to maintain CBA’s long tradition of producing title contenders.
