Accolades continue to pile up for Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball senior Breanna Stewart, which now includes a place on the McDonald’s All-American team.
Stewart was one of 24 seniors named to participate in the annual contest March 28 at Chicago’s United Center, to be telecast by ESPNU. Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball senior DaJuan Coleman will play in the boys game that same night.
Right after that, Stewart will go to Denver, sight of this year’s NCAA Women’s Final Four, to play in the Women’s College Basketball Association High School All-Star Game on March 31. Two of Stewart’s projected future teammates at Connecticut, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson, are also in this game.
On Friday night, Stewart and her C-NS teammates gave yet another strong performance at Corcoran, relying on its defense to take control in a 68-31 victory over the Cougars.
All through the first half, the Northstars had difficulty maintaining its usual high level of production. That hardly mattered, though, as C-NS kept forcing Corcoran into turnovers and bad shots, and Stewart had her fair share of blocks, too.
That produced a 31-10 halftime end, and the Northstars nearly doubled that point total in the third quarter alone in pulling further away. Stewart would finish with 28 points, while Abbey Timpano chimed in with 11 points and Paul added 10 points. Cara Gannett earned six points.
On Sunday, C-NS, as expected, got the top seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs, and will face either no. 8 seed Rome Free Academy or no. 9 seed Nottingham in the quarterfinals Friday night, which marks the last home game for Stewart and her senior teammate, Brittany Paul.
As that went on, the Northstars went to the Bronx and faced long-time New York City power Christ The King, staying in the contest all the way through before falling to the Royals by a score of 66-60.
Throughout a tight first half, neither side could gain any kind of advantage. C-NS did sneak ahead, 32-31, by halftime, but CTK kept pace and moved out in front by the fourth quarter, despite 29 points from Stewart and 15 points from Paul.
Only down by two, 62-60, with a minute to play, C-NS committed a turnover, and the Royals converted it into a basket to double its margin before using two late free throws to seal it. Star sophomore Sierra Calhoun led CTK with 22 points.
