As they moved toward a possible championship showdown, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy boys basketball team had vastly different experiences in their respective Section III Class A quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
The no. 4 seed Red Rams found itself trailing in the fourth quarter against no. 5 seed Cortland, but rallied to force overtime and, led by Adrian Autry’s clutch play, got past the Purple Tigers 68-59.
On the other end of the bracket, the no. 2 seed Brothers dominated no. 7 seed Oneida from start to finish, cruising past the Indians 76-41.
J-D and Cortland had met just 11 days earlier on that same court, and the Rams pulled it out 67-60, so it knew quite well that the Purple Tigers’ matchup zone defense and inside-outside game, anchored by forward Nick Craig and guard Sage Brown, was tough to contain.
And it was again in the playoff rematch. A back-and-forth first half saw Cortland inch in front, 15-14, but J-D played better defense the rest of the half and took a 31-26 lead to the break.
During the third quarter, it was the Purple Tigers’ turn to surge, and it led by as much as 10, Brown eventually hitting four 3-pointers to finish with 22 points and Craig also getting 22 points.
But the Rams made up that deficit, largely because Cortland missed six straight free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter. Autry’s basket late in regulation put J-D up, but the Purple Tigers finally made a foul shot, tying it and sending the game to OT.
Autry then took over, hitting five straight points in that four-minute extra period and seven overall to five him 13 for the night, carrying J-D as it also clamped down on defense, holding Cortland to just five points.
Helped by a trio of 3-pointers, James Boeheim led the Rams with 19 points. Isaiah Williams added 14 points, with Dom DeRegis earning nine points. Jacob Eich and Rahmel Smith had six points apiece.
None of this tension was felt at CBA, where the Brothers, who had lost back-to-back games to Bishop Ludden and Westhill to end the regular season, had no trouble turning back Oneida.
Pressure on one end led to baskets on the other end, and the Brothers led 19-6 after one period. The Indians never really recovered from that initial burst, and CBA kept adding to the margin, gaining a 39-18 halftime lead and also controlling the second half, too.
Matt Burns set the tone, hitting five 3-poitners to account for all of his 15 points, while Charles Pride also got 15 points. Jack Carey managed 11 points and seven rebounds, while Emmett Dunn also had a strong game in the paint, with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Monte Stroman, with eight rebounds, five assists and five steals, and Nick Aversa, with six assists, also made big contributions. CBA held Oneida’s top scorer, Travis Moyer, to just six points, and only one Indians player, Jeff Coulter, reached double figures, earning 10 points.
In order to get to a sectional final against each other on March 8, CBA and J-D both must get through Sunday’s semifinals on two separate courts at Onondaga Community College.
At noon at Allyn Hall, the Brothers meet no. 3 seed Whitesboro, who took out Utica-Notre Dame 66-57 in the quarterfinal round and feature 1,000-point scorer T.J. Borza. At 2:45 at SRC Arena, the Red Rams try to upend top seed Carthage and contain its super senior, Peyton McLaurin, who put up a school-record 52 points in the Comets’ 81-55 quarterfinal rout over Fulton.
