With twin top seeds in the Section III Class A playoffs, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys and girls basketball teams set off on far different quests.
For the boys Red Rams, history beckons as it goes after an unprecedented fifth consecutive state public title. Meanwhile, the J-D girls want to end a 14-year sectional championship drought.
Both would face Whitesboro at home in last Friday night’s opening round – and both would win big, the J-D boys prevailing 81-56 as the girls shut down the Warriors 57-33.
This was, of course, the last time that J-D’s pair of senior stars, DaJuan Coleman and Tyler Cavanaugh, played on their home court, so they wasted little time helping the Rams bolt to a 21-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Whitesboro hung around for a while, but the Rams gradually expanded its margin in the second half and, in doing so, reached a milestone.
Cavanaugh, hitting on five 3-pointers, earned a season-best 32 points, which put him past the 1,000-point mark for his career. Coleman offered support with 17 points, while Jafar Kinsey had 11 points and Pete Drescher added nine points.
Earlier that night, J-D’s girls worked against a Whitesboro side far removed from its 2011 Class A sectional title run, due to graduation losses and injuries.
But the Rams showed little sympathy, holding the Warriors to two points in the first quarter with its trademark defensive pressure. J-D also was consistent on the offensive end, carefully working its way to a 32-9 halftime edge.
From there, it was academic, as Kayleigh Cavanaugh paced the Rams with 16 points. Cydney Goodrum picked up 12 points, with Maddy Frank and Stephanie Mannion each earning seven points and Katie Maroney contributing six points.
In the Class A semifinals Thursday night at Chittenango, the J-D girls meet no. 4 seed Carthage at 6 p.m., while the boys Red Rams take on no. 5 seed New Hartford (who needed overtime to eliminate Utica-Notre Dame) at 8 p.m.
