CENTRAL NEW YORK – Glimpses of success throughout their respective regular seasons gave the Cazenovia and Chittenango girls basketball teams some optimism going into the Section III Class B playoffs.

In a large 24-team bracket and open-tournament bracket, the no. 14 seed Lakers and no. 21 seed Bears both would have to win opening-round games last Thursday night – but only one did so.

Hosting no. 19 seed South Jefferson at Buckley Gym, Cazenovia was superb on defense throughout the game’s early stages, riding that effort to a 43-31 victory over the Spartans.

All through the first two quarters, the Lakers made sure South Jefferson didn’t get many open looks, translating to just four points in the first quarter and two points in the second period.

And though the Spartans cut the Lakers’ margin to 30-20 entering the fourth quarter, it got no closer, Cazenovia led mostly by Ella Baker, who poured in 19 points, nearly half her team’s
output.

Help came from Katie Rajkowski, who had eight points, along with Bess Johnson and Olivia Ruddy, who got six points apiece. No South Jefferson player scored in double figures.

Now Cazenovia would try to upset no. 3 seed Cortland in Saturday’s second round, but the Lakers never got close as it fell 68-31 to the Purple Tigers, who had mostly faced Class A competition all season.

Cortland built a 56-18 lead through three quarters, led by Valerosa Gambitta’s 24 points. Johnson, with 11 points, and Baker, with 10 points, got most of Cazenovia’s production.

As for Chittenango, it had to go face no. 12 seed Phoenix, whom it beat late in December – something the Firebirds remembered quite well, as it turned out.

Any hopes the Bears had repeating that early-season surprise got dashed quickly, Phoenix shutting them out in the first quarter and recording 18 unanswered points.

Never able to recover from that early drought, Chittenango lost, 59-27, seeing Hailee Foran pick up 16 points but no other player get more than one field goal.

Phoenix, by contrast, had all 11 players which saw action get on the board, led by Alaynna Dashnau and Courtney Carter, who had 10 points apiece, and Ava Kuropatwinski, who got eight points.
Cazenovia had gone up last Monday against Class A contender Central Square and lost, 41-22, to the Redhawks, who built a 26-14 advantage by halftime.

Contained in the late going, the Lakers still got 10 points from Baker and seven points from Rajkowski. Natalie Bush led Central Square with 13 points as Gabrielle Basile and Emerson Widowski had 10 points apiece.

Chittenango would end up 6-14 in the regular season after last Monday’s 46-20 defeat to Oswego, who never let the Bears score more than six points in any single quarter.

Foran and Alazayah Smith had eight points apiece, but the rest of the roster had just two field goals as the Buccaneers’ Adriana Ellis had 21 points to outscore the opposition and Sophia Babcock got 12 points.