DeWitt — By the time the 29th edition of the Bottar-Leone Holiday Classic ended, the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball teams both were pleased with how things turned out.
In the Brothers’ case, it was because it had survived its closest call of the season, edging two-time defending state Class B champion Westhill 64-62 on Charles Pride’s driving lay-up with 3.5 seconds left.
But the Red Rams, who lost to CBA in Tuesday night’s opening round, ended things well by upending the reigning Section III Class A champions from Henninger 70-64 in the consolation game, keyed by a string of late baskets by senior forward Jimmy Boeheim.
The main event lived up to all the billing, CBA and Westhill engaging in a tense battle where well-timed scoring runs by both sides left the matter in doubt right to the end.
“We needed to win a close game, and we did,” said Brothers head coach Buddy Wleklinski.
In order to win it, CBA had to execute in the waning seconds. Trailing 62-55, Westhill had rallied late with seven consecutive points, the last of them a basket by Owen Matukas after a steal by Ryan Roland, which had pulled the Warriors even, 62-62, with 26 seconds to play, though it left plenty of time for the Brothers to answer.
After a time-out, Pride took the ball at the top of the key. Wleklinski said he had several options, including a couple of open teammates, but instead the CBA sophomore drove to his right, all the way to the basket, and converted.
Westhill had one time-out left, but chose instead to rush up the floor. Roland, from near mid-court, tried a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer – and it bounced off the rim.
To a large degree, Roland was the game’s central figure. He torched CBA for 22 first-half points, helping Westhill lead by as much as eight and go to the break still up, 38-33.
continued — Never leaving the court to take a breather, Roland began to tire in the second half. Sensing this, the Brothers switched fresh defenders on him, ranging from Pride to Dan Damico to Paul Aversa, and they shut him out until the last minute of the game.
Meanwhile, the teams stayed close until CBA appeared to grab control when Mark Lutz hit consecutive 3-pointers and Nick Aversa, who had a season-high 14 points, hit from beyond the arc, all within the span of a minute, to put the Brothers up 62-55 with less than two minutes left.
Still, Westhill wasn’t done. Kameren Jackson’s 3-pointer with 1:27 left was followed by a missed free throw from the Brothers and Roland breaking his long drought with a driving lay-up before the steal and basket by Matukas tied it, setting up Pride’s big moment.
Named the tournament MVP, Pride had 11 points, the same total as Lutz, while Damico led CBA with 17 points. Chase Gedney gave Westhll 18 points, 12 of them in the second half, as Matukas got 13 points.
All of this followed an exciting consolation game where J-D squandered a fourth-quarter lead to Henninger, only to recover in time to pull it out.
Buddy Boeheim’s 13 third-quarter points helped the Red Rams overcome a 33-32 halftime deficit and ignited a 15-2 run. With less than six minutes left, J-D was in front, 58-48.
At that moment, though, Henninger picked up pressure and reeled off 13 unanswered points in a span of less than two minutes, only to see its top player, Destin Blunt, foul out with 2:34 left.
Without Blunt to worry about, Jimmy Boeheim took full advantage, hitting three consecutive baskets down the stretch to match his younger brother’s total of 23 points and put the Rams up 66-61. Then, after missing the front end of a one-and-one, Darvin Lovette hit on three free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.
