All the pieces were in place last Friday night for the Christian Brothers Academy to end a three-year drought in the “Holy War” against Bishop Ludden.
The Brothers were on a roll, having not lost since that 59-46 defeat to the Gaelic Knights Jan. 18 at SRC Arena and rising to no. 14 in the state Class A rankings. It was also Senior Night, and a chance to send the six departing players with a long-awaited win against their rivals in green and white.
But Ludden had other ideas – especially its senior duo of Jack Rauch and Zach Walser, who carried much of the load as the Gaelic Knights again topped the Brothers, this time by a 75-59 margin.
Rauch, in particular, entered the game on a tear. He had scored 31 points in a win over Jamesville-DeWitt on Feb. 6 and, on Tuesday, had bettered that career mark with 33 points in Ludden’s tough 73-68 win over Cortland.
Against CBA, it kept on going. Barely a minute into the game, Rauch already had converted on a hook shot and a 3-pointer, and Ludden had the lead for good.
By the end of the first quarter, Rauch had 12 points, but a push by the Brothers, capped by a banked-in Charles Pride 3-pointer at the horn, kept the lead at 19-16.
It didn’t matter what CBA tried on the defensive side. From outside shots to tip-ins of his teammates’ misses, Rauch kept converting, ultimately getting 19 of his 23 points in those first two periods.
Spurred by Rauch’s numbers, plus 10 points from Walser and six from Mika Adams-Woods, Ludden closed the half on a 24-6 run, and a game most figured would be tight instead had the Gaelic Knights out in front 44-24 going to the break.
The second half turned into a futile chase for the Brothers. Every time it strung together baskets and gave the home crowd a reason to hope, Ludden snuffed it out.
Walser had much to do with it. With CBA harassing Rauch every time he touched the ball, Walser dropped in his team’s first 10 points of the second half, ultimately finishing with 25 points.
In defeat, freshman Charles Pride led the Brothers with 19 points, while sophomore Dan Damico got most of his 14 points in the second half. Monte Stroman added 10 points as Jack Carey produced seven points.
Bad weather elongated the Brothers’ closing stretch, moving last Monday’s showdown with reigning state and Federation Class B champion Westhill to Tuesday night, both teams knowing that it wouldn’t start sectional tournament play for a while.
But there was no concern about CBA looking ahead to Ludden, or Westhill, as it put together a season-high point total in last Tuesday’s game against Homer, trouncing the Trojans 92-51.
Homer’s porous defense allowed 20 or more points in each of the fourth periods, CBA using a 25-15 second-quarter push to break a close game open, and then getting away in a big manner.
Carey had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Stroman led with 19 points, while Charles Pride (12 points) and Damico (10 points) also hit double figures.
Nick Aversa had nine points and eight assists, with Matt Burns and Mark Lutz each getting six points. Homer saw Jerrad Reiner finish with 21 points, while Jacob Rivers had 11 points.
Even with the loss to Ludden, CBA drew the no. 2 seed and a first-round bye for the Section III Class A playoffs. After it makes up the Westhill game, the Brothers will wait for next Tuesday’s quarterfinal against the winner of Friday’s opening-round game between no. 7 seed Oneida and no. 10 seed East Syracuse Minoa.
