Both of Christian Brothers Academy’s basketball teams recovered from those defeats to Jamesville-DeWitt earlier in the week and earned an impressive Friday-night sweep over Cortland, including the boys shutting down the Purple Tigers for much of the night in a 56-37 victory.
All game long, the Brothers’ man-to-man defense smothered whatever Cortland was trying to establish. In fact, it would not surrender more than 10 points in any quarter to the Purple Tigers as the margin grew to 41-27 by the end of the third period.
Charlie Russo again led the way on the offensive end, earning 23 points, while Monte Stroman gained 12 points and Mike Trasolini contributed six points. Cortland lost despite 17 points from Sage Brown and 11 points from Quinn Kennedy.
On the girls side, CBA ran all over Cortland 79-46 to improve its record to 7-3, already having the lead by the time it made a 25-7 blitz through the second quarter that ran the margin to 38-14, more than the Purple Tigers could overcome.
Each of the nine Brothers players that saw action earned at least one field goal, with Julie Cuomo roaring back to form as she led with 21 points. Natalie Nardella managed 14 points, while Paige Nicholson earned all 12 of her points from four 3-pointers. Rosalee Winderl (nine points), Nafysa Williams (eight points) and Erinn Grover (seven points) nearly got to double figures, too.
But when CBA went to Utica to play in the Juggler Classic, it got smothered by host Utica-Notre Dame in Saturday’s opening round in an 84-36 defeat, falling behind 44-11 by halftime before things settled down.
Cuomo did finish with 11 points, while Bella Corieri had seven points. But no other CBA player had more than one field goal.
UND’s Iowa State-bound senior star, Emily Durr, who is just the eighth player in Section III history to score more than 2,000 career points, added 27 to that total, plus seven rebounds and five assists. Anari Harris (15 points) and Jaclyn Hajec (13 points) helped out.
The effects of that game may have lingered into Sunday’s consolation round, when CBA lost, 44-42, to Waterloo (Section V), in a game that featured a wild second half. Down by two, 22-20, at halftime, CBA (7-5) appeared to gain control as it doubled its point total in a 20-11 third quarter.
Just as quickly, though, the Brothers went cold in the fourth quarter, held to just two points as Waterloo rallied and won it. In defeat, Cuomo and Nardella both had 11 points, while Nicholson and Winderl gained six points apiece.
