Jamesville-DeWitt’s boys basketball team has waited since Dec. 29 to get another shot at Christian Brothers Academy, and it will arrive next on Feb. 3 – but only after some tough preliminaries both sides had to negotiate.
And for the Red Rams, nothing proved tougher than Saturday’s 65-64 defeat to Rochester McQuaid (Section V), a game decided when the Knights’ Mark DiPasquale made a jump shot at the buzzer to end J-D’s seven-game win streak.
What made it even more frustrating was that J-D had a 64-60 lead entering the final seconds. Then McQuaid’s Thomas Jones made a 3-pointer, cutting the margin to one, and the Rams, normally a good free throw-shooting team, missed the front end of a one-and-one chance and the Knights rebounded, setting up DiPasquale’s big finish.
Up 20-11 after one period, J-D saw the Knights pull within one, 36-35, by halftime, and from there the game was a tight one, all the way to the bitter finish.
Isaiah Willams paced the Rams with 19 points. Dom DeRegis had 13 points, with Evan Dourdas earning nine points and Brian Cieplicki getting seven points. James Boeheim and Jacob Eich each added six points.
McQuaid’s Connor Maloney led both sides with 20 points, with Jones (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Dimetrius Breedlove (12 points, 12 rebounds) both recording double-doubles and DiPasquale finishing with 11 points.
A night earlier, J-D had crushed Chittenango 88-41, building up a 74-31 lead through the first three periods as four players – DeRegis (16 points), Williams (14 points), Boeheim (13 points) and Adrian Autry (11 points) – reached double figures. Matt Carlin added seven points as Dourdas and Jai Benson had six points apiece.
CBA had its second meeting of the season with Cicero-North Syracuse last Tuesday night, and it proved tougher than the first one, but the Brothers still beat the Northstars 54-44.
Like CBA, C-NS was coming a loss in the Zebra Classic at SRC Arena two nights earlier (to Liverpool), though that game paled in drama and attention to the Brothers’ defeat to “Holy War” rival Bishop Ludden that ended a nine-game win streak.
That win streak had included CBA defeating C-NS 74-56 at Buddy Wleklinski Court on Dec. 16, where Northstars head coach John Haas had attended high school and done enough in three sports to be named to the Brothers’ Athletic Hall of Fame.
This made every game between the Brothers and Northstars a battle, and this was no different, the two sides staying close to each other in a tense first half, C-NS leading early before CBA inched in front, 26-24, going to halftime.
They were still in close quarters until the final period, when CBA outscored them 15-8 to put the game away.
C-NS mostly contained the Brothers’ leading scorer, Monte Stroman, holding him to seven points, but Jack Carey had 10 points and 16 rebounds, with Emmett Dunn (12 points) and Charles Pride (11 points) helping out.
On the Northstars’ side, Steven Theetge had 12 points, while A.J. Nesci had 10 points and seven rebounds. Devin Turrell managed eight points, with Brandon Gacek and Nick Antonello getting six points apiece and adding 11 total rebounds.
Hosting Fulton on Friday night, the Brothers put away the Red Raiders 64-53, doing so mainly by starting fast. The Brothers led 16-4 after one period, and though Fulton did a strong job keeping pace the rest of the way, it could not make a sustained run to get closer.
Stroman had 16 points, adding four steals and four assists. Dunn contributed 11 points, six rebounds and four assists, with Nick Aversa getting 10 points and four assists. Carey put away 12 rebounds to go with his eight points as Pride got seven points and seven steals, and Mark Lutz also earned seven points. Chris Jones (18 points) and Cody Green (13 points) led Fulton’s efforts.
