Much of the core unit that produced back-to-back Section III Class A championships for the Jamesville-DeWitt girls basketball teamJamesville-DeWitt girls basketball team has now left the scene.

Yet even without the likes of Cydney Goodrum, Kayleigh Cavanaugh, Arriell Mussi and Taylor Fallon, the Red Rams are still bent on gaining a sectional three-peat and, perhaps, doing much better, perhaps to the tune of a state final four appearance in Troy in mid-March.

A good indicator of J-D’s quality would come Friday night, when the Red Rams visited Christian Brothers Academy in the latest chapter of their neighborhood rivalry.

And all indications for the Rams looked quite good as it took charge from the start and never really let the Brothers get too close, eventually prevailing by a score of 56-43.

CBA, who lost a large senior group of its own (including Marisa Romeo) from a squad that went 16-4 and lost a thrilling 64-61 sectional Class AA semifinal to Corcoran a season ago, was breaking in a new lineup around Julie Cuomo, and they would struggle in the early going, especially on the defensive side.

J-D took full advantage, surging to a 21-7 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Brothers settled down the rest of the half, yet could not eat into its deficit, and a 15-9 push through the third quarter allowed the Rams to feel more comfortable.

Alyssa Robens, emerging as J-D’s primary offensive threat, earned 22 points, matching Cuomo. The difference was that Robens had a lot more help, as Carly O’Hern stepped up for 13 points, with Meg Hair getting seven points and Maddy Frank six points. Behind Cuomo, CBA’s Natalie Nardella and Paige Nicholson each had six points.

Three nights earlier, J-D had opened its season against Fulton, and even with a new-look starting lineup, the Rams were in control and nearly doubled up the Red Raiders in a 58-30 victory.

Forcing a string of early turnovers, J-D sprinted to a 15-5 lead on Fulton by the end of the first quarter. Things slowed up on both sides for a while, but at the start of the third quarter the Rams made a decisive move, burying Fulton with a 19-4 spurt.

Just as encouraging for the Rams, 10 different players recorded at least one field goal and 11 players found the scoring column. None had more than the 10 points put up by Robens, but O’Hern (nine points), Hair (eight points), Angela Bussone (seven points) and Kara Gantos (six points) were close behind.

Fayetteville-Manlius also started its season. Having gone 11-8 a season ago, the Hornets is pinning its hopes on improvement in 2013-14 on finding some help for some proven veteran players.

Even with those intentions, though, the Hornets drew a tough assignment in last Tuesday night’s season opener, as fellow Class AA contender West Genesee arrived and played a solid game from start to finish, beating F-M 62-50.

The two sides played through a tight first quarter, and F-M only trailed 13-12 before WG started to assert control in the second period, gaining a 31-25 lead by the time they reached the break.

That margin doubled in the third quarter, and with the Wildcats ahead 47-34, it could withstand F-M’s final push, mainly because the Hornets only had two proven scoring threats.

Madison Beck led both sides with 22 points, while Lauren Getman managed 16 points. But no other Hornet player had more than two field goals as Erika Stube and Mette Lise Haaland finished with five points apiece.

Melissa Bakowski led the way for the Wildcats, gaining all of her 20 points from 10 successful field-goal tries. Melissa Fumano finished with 15 points, while Jackie Pardee took on a larger role and put in 13 points for WG.

Going out of league play, F-M faced Whitesboro, a Class A finalist in 2013, on Saturday afternoon, and earned its first victory of the season, a 42-33 decision over the Warriors.

With the game tied 10-10 going to the second quarter, F-M took over, outscoring Whitesboro 11-5 the rest of the half. And it kept on going, the lead expanding to 38-25 by the time they reached the fourth quarter, where a late drought would not derail the Hornets’ efforts.

Other than Maria Lapertosa, who had 25 points, and Lauren Lapertosa, who got five points, no Warrior player converted a field goal. F-M, by contrast, had six who did so, led by Getman, who produced 15 points as D’Jhai Patterson-Ricks, Kennedy Phelan (seven points each) and Madison Beck (six points) helped out.