Just as the calendar turned to 2012, the Jordan-Elbridge girls basketball team’s fortunes took a serious downward turn.
In the span of a week, the Eagles lost guard Ashley Foote for the season with a torn ACL, saw guard Kelsey Soderberg sidelined with an ankle sprain and had a third player leave the team.
And all this came in advance of meeting undefeated, state Class B no. 6-ranked Westhill last Tuesday night, where J-E played on even terms except for one decisive stretch where the Warriors got away, leading to a 60-37 defeat.
Early in the second quarter, the Eagles trailed, 18-9, but J-E caught up by halftime and, early in the third quarter, inched ahead 23-22. The two sides then traded 8-0 spurts, Molly Hourigan and Grace Dungey hitting on back-to-back 3-pointers.
So the Eagles were in front, 31-30, when, with 2:33 left in the third, Westhill’s Kelly Mascari hit a lay-up to put Westhill back in front, igniting a flood of baskets from the visitors.
In the span of five minutes that stretched into the fourth quarter, the Warriors put up 22 unanswered points – seven of them from Sam Peebles on her way to 22 points overall. Anna Ross added five points in that spurt on her way to 16 points overall.
J-E, flattened by that 22-0 run, never recovered, though Hourigan did put up another strong effort that included 17 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks. Dungey added eight points.
Two nights later, the Eagles would play at Skaneateles and bounce back in a big way, getting big efforts from Hourigan and Dungey in a 50-30 romp over the Lakers.
Perhaps learning from the Westhill encounter, J-E broke it open with a second-quarter surge as it outscored Skaneateles 16-3, and for the rest of the night the Lakers were in a catch-up mode.
Any rally, though, was impossible with Hourigan delivering 20 rebounds and 11 blocks to go with her 15 points. And Skaneateles could not gang on up Hourigan, either, because Dungey was putting together a career-best 22 points and 10 rebounds. Wheeler added eight points.
Meanwhile, Westhill’s anticipated showdown with Bishop Grimes on Friday night was snowed out, but the Warriors still have to make up that game, plus deal with a rematch against Bishop Ludden (whom it beat 69-63 on Jan. 3) next Thursday night.
J-E’s boys team lost last Tuesday to Westhill, 51-27, not able to score more than 10 points in any single period against an effective Warrior defense.
Jake Redmond, with 11 points, and Jacob Nigolian, with eight points, led Westhill’s attack as it climbed back to the .500 mark (5-5), while John Quinn (nine points) and Logan Smart (six points) set the pace for the Eagles.
Back home Thursday night, J-E fell to Skaneateles 77-43, as Holmes put up 11 points, just ahead of Cody Lewis (10 points), Gale Thorpe (eight points) and Smart (six points). The Lakers built a 70-32 lead through three periods as Brandon Barron got 14 points, with Jimmy Atkinson and Austin Gardner earning 11 points apiece.
