Now the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball team’s quest to regain the Section III Class A crown hits its most important phase.
The Red Rams, who finished the regular season 16-2 and riding a 10-game win streak (all of them by double digits), drew the top seed in the Class A bracket, helped in no small part by Carthage, once 17-0, losing to Whitesboro 64-60 in its Feb. 8 regular-season finale.
In a points tie-breaker, J-D inched ahead of no. 2 seed and defending champion Bishop Ludden, despite the Gaelic Knights’ win over the Red Rams in early January. It would face Fowler or Indian River Tuesday night in the quarterfinals.
Before it could go into the playoffs, though, J-D had one more regular-season trip to make, to Homer, and found it to be a breeze as the Rams ripped the Trojans 80-48.
Jafar Kinsey had 22 points and passed Tyler Cavanaugh on J-D’s all-time scoring list, now standing at 1,071 points. Dom DeRegis got most of his 13 points from three 3-pointers, while Isaiah Williams had 11 points and Adrian Autry contributed 10 points.
East Syracuse-Minoa, as the no. 7 seed, would host no. 10 seed New Hartford in the opening round of the Class A tournament on Saturday afternoon, and would not make it out of this Spartan duel, falling by a score of 59-55.
All game long, it would prove tight. New Hartford inched out in front 15-11 going to the second quarter, but ESM made up most of it and only trailed by one, 30-29, at halftime.
Where it all went wrong was in the third quarter, when ESM managed just nine points, allowing New Hartford to get back its cushion, which it would maintain throughout the stretch as Mark Chanatry (21 points), Cooper Deck (15 points) and Adam Zogby (13 points) accounted for most of the offense.
ESM got points from just five different players. Sean Richardson set the pace with 19 points, while Eyan Underwood hit a trio of 3-pointers to count for a majority of his 16 points. DeShaun Gorman (seven points), Jah-Meer McDuffie (six points) and Corey Beeles (five points) had the rest of the offense.
Moving to girls basketball, While it’s a younger group without much of the shared history of their predecessors, Jamesville-DeWitt carries the same ambition – end up with a sectional Class A title.
The two-time defending champion Red Rams enter the 2014 edition of the sectional tournament as the top seed in Class A, riding a 12-game win streak, all of it built up in a four-week stretch of games where, somehow, it didn’t manage to wear out or deal with injuries.
That 12th win in a row was earned last Tuesday night in a 55-18 romp over Homer. Meg Hair’s superb eighth-grade campaign continued as she, along with Alyssa Robens, produced 13 points apiece. Carly O’Hern added nine points as each of the 11 J-D players that saw action got at least one point by game’s end.
Just as was the case on the boys side, East Syracuse-Minoa got the no. 7 seed for the Class A sectional tournament, meaning it would have to get past no. 10 seed Oneida on Saturday if it wanted a shot at no. 2 seed Indian River in the quarterfinals.
And the Spartans barely did so, edging the Indians 36-35. After taking a 20-15 halftime lead, ESM’s offense went cold the rest of the way, but it saved itself with stellar defense, never letting Oneida do much beyond the work of Riley Markle, who with 20 points had most of her team’s production.
Spread out more, the Spartans saw Stephanie Edmonds earned 12 points, while Haley Wise got eight points and Sydni Eure earned six points.
As ESM takes its shot at Indian river, J-D would play its Class A quarterfinal against no. 9 seed Fulton, who edged Homer 37-33, with the Red Rams looking to advance to a semifinal against Camden or Carthage.
