Many of the area’s top boys and girls basketball players had one more chance to showcase their talents during the 26th annual John Sherlock Zebra Classic, held at Nottingham High School and Onondaga Community College.
And of them, none probably felt better in the end than Jamesville-DeWitt sophomore Jafar Kinsey. Finally out from under the shadow cast on his own team by the likes of Dajuan Coleman and Tyler Cavanaugh, Kinsey helped the B&R Glass team win the championship.
The final, a 66-65 thriller at OCC, saw B&R use a 21-10 sprint through the second quarter to seize a 39-34 lead. Bottar-Leone tied it, 51-51, by the end of the third period, and in the homestretch it went back and forth, neither side able to pull away.
B&R pulled it out behind the work of Kinsey, who finished with 17 points (including a pair of 3-pointers), and CBA’s Dylan Haines, who earned 13 points. In defeat, Tomer Nesher (Fayetteville-Manlius) produced seven points for Bottar-Leone.
In last Tuesday’s opening round, Nesher (18 points) and John Schurman (13 points) led Bottar-Leone past NAPA Auto Parts 74-70. IBEW topped Pathfinders 70-59 as CBA’s Chalrie Russo managed 10 points and Bishop Grimes’ Jon Carnegie added eight points.
Cavanaugh put up 21 points for Syracuse PBA on Wednesday as it beat Nutzy’s Grill 79-67. East Syracuse-Minoa’s Keith Caiello contributed eight points and Grimes’ Casey Evans added a field goal.
B&R outscored Brooklyn Pickle 81-76 in the other opening-round game on Wednesday. Kinsey put up 17 points as his Red Rams teammate, Pete Drescher, joined ESM’s Jeff McDuffie as they got 12 points apiece for Brooklyn Pickle.
Moving on to Thursday’s semifinal, Kinsey met Cavanaugh head-to-head – and it was the sophomore getting the better of the Wake Forest-bound senior as B&R Glass beat Syracuse PBA 81-71.
A 28-12 fourth-quarter outburst made the difference for B&R as Kinsey finished with 22 points, with help from Cicero-North Syracuse’s Andrew Johnson (18 points) and Cortland’s J.P. Reagan (17 points). Cavanaugh, in defeat, still managed 29 points as he and Bishop Grimes’ Casey Evans (14 points) accounted for most of the PBA attack.
Bottar-Leone beat IBEW 58-53 in the other semifinal despite small contributions from Schurman and Nesher. Ben Hackett, sophomore star of state Class B champion Bishop Ludden, led Bottar-Leone with 22 points.
The four-team girls tournament commenced Wednesday at OCC, where IBEW topped Fitness Forum 65-53. For IBEW, Kayleigh Cavanaugh (J-D) had 11 points, while F-M’s Kiley Shoemaker put up six points and CBA’s Marisa Romeo earned a field goal, too.
This set up a final between IBEW and Lourdes Camp, who won the other semifinal over NY Air Brake 60-50. Shoemaker’s F-M teammate, Charlotte Beers, produced eight points.
IBEW proved too much in the final, using a 20-10 burst in the second quarter to take control and holding off Lourdes Camp 81-69. Shoemaker contributed five points and Cavanaugh three points to the winning side, while Romeo earned 13 points for Lourdes and Bishop Grimes’ Amelia Heiselman hit a 3-pointer.
