True, the shots aren’t always falling in the early portion of the season for the Bishop Grimes girls basketball team, but given the way it’s playing defense, there’s time to work the other parts out.
That was the takeaway from Monday night’s game at Bishop Ludden, where the Cobras smothered the Gaelic Knights 46-23 in large part due to pressure that was applied from the moment the game tipped off.e
Three nights earlier, on Dec. 5, Grimes’ season had started with a 45-34 victory at Westhill, its first over the Warriors in more than a quarter-century. Now, in the same neighborhood, the Cobras started to take charge of one of its other main rivalries.
Ludden had started 1-1, with a win over Skaneateles and a loss to Corcoran. But those were done without its dynamic freshman guard, Danielle Rauch, who sprained her ankle just before the season got underway.
Rauch was back in uniform on this night, but she sat out the first half, watching as her Gaelic Knights teammates hung around as long as it could despite prolonged droughts.
For example, Ludden did not get a basket in the game’s first five-plus minutes, until Olivia Trunfio hit a 3-pointer. Grimes couldn’t take full advantage, missing on all kinds of outside shots, and only led by a 12-8 margin early in the second quarter.
Using 11 players in its rotation, the Cobras continued to pound away at the Gaelic Knights, no matter who had the ball. Another Ludden scoring drought of more than three minutes helped assure that cold-shooting Grimes stayed in front, with a 17-10 edge at the break.
But if the Cobras needed any extra motivation, it came when the fiery Rauch entered the game early in the third quarter, to the loud cheers of Ludden’s student section.
Even Rauch’s presence, though, could not keep Grimes from blanking Ludden for the last 7:19 of that period, during which time frustrations boiled over for the Gaelic Knights and its head coach, Jerry Roesch, picked up a technical foul.
While Grimes never really heated up, it did enough to go on a 14-0 run that stretched into the final period, putting the game out of reach.
Modest production got spread around as two of those talented Cobras ninth-graders, Brianna Squier and Kyra Grimshaw, managed seven points apiece, with another freshman, Azariah Wade, joining Jordan Vaught as they each earned six points. All of Rauch’s five points came in the fourth quarter as Allie Weigand led Ludden with seven points.
