Whether at the conclusion of 2015 or the commencement of 2016, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls basketball team still finds itself a few steps ahead of Christian Brothers Academy in the battle for OHSL Freedom division and Section III Class A supremacy.
The second regular-season meeting between the Red Rams and Brothers last Saturday night did not exactly echo their Dec. 18 meeting, but the Red Rams, paced by sophomore Meg Hair, still managed to take over in the game’s middle stages and prevail by a 57-40 margin.
Three weeks earlier, at CBA, J-D had won 66-46 in large part because it roared out to a big early lead and never let it get too close. Determined not to let that happen again, the Brothers forced the Rams into lots of early turnovers and kept them off the board in the game’s first three-plus minutes.
CBA led most of that first quarter, but Hair brought J-D to life with eight straight points. Then, trailing 18-16 in the second period, the Rams picked up its own defense and blanked the Brothers for the last 5:39 of the half.
But it remained close until Hair hit back-to-back 3-pointers to create a 28-18 halftime margin. That was part of a 15-0 run, and not content with that, J-D engineered a 12-0 run late in the third quarter to make it 51-27 and put the game out of reach.
Hair finished with 23 points, balanced out by the work done inside by Julia Kelner, who had nine of her 12 points in the second half, and Jamie Boeheim, who had eight points. For the Brothers, Nafysa Williams led with 11 points, with Rosalee Winderl (10 points) and Natalie Nardella (nine points) close behind.
A 2-1 showing in the Dec. 27-30 Diamond State Classic in Delaware meant that the Rams fell from no. 2 to no. 6 in the state Class A rankings just as CBA, who won the Camden Tournament turning the holiday break, entered the rankings at no. 18.
Each of the two teams easily handled their tune-ups last Tuesday night, with J-D pounding past Homer 81-33 just as CBA rolled to a 69-46 victory over Phoenix.
All through its game with Homer, the Rams had little trouble handling the Trojans’ defense, steadily building a 41-19 halftime lead and continuing to get away during a 23-7 third-quarter blitz.
Boeheim led the way, upping her career-best mark to 19 points, which included seven free throws. Everyone in the lineup got at least three points as Hair and Carly O’Hern each picked up 14 points, with Julia Fairbanks adding nine points. Kelner and Kasey Vaughan had eight points apiece.
Meanwhile, at Phoenix, CBA didn’t start well, trailing 16-13 after one period. But that turned around in a hurry when the Brothers caught fire and doused the Firebirds to the tune of a 22-2 charge through the rest of the half, taking the lead for good.
Winderl’s totals included 17 points, 10 rebounds, six steals, four assists and four blocks. Nardella, who is heading to Amherst College in Massachusetts, had 12 points, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals, with Williams adding 12 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Megan Lynch added seven rebounds as eighth-grader Brooke Jarvis had a season-best nine points and Paige Nicholson got eight points, plus three assists.
CBA played again on Thursday, at Fulton, and remained impressive, gaining its fifth win in a row by taking out the Red Raiders 54-43.
No single run defined this game, but the Brothers seized control by holding Fulton to six points in the second quarter, followed by a breakout in the third period that produced a 44-28 margin, far too much for the Red Raiders to overcome despite Nicole Hansen’s game-high 20 points.
Williams, who had a team-high eight rebounds, and Nicholson both scored 12 points to lead a well-balanced CBA attack. Nardella had eight points, five assists and four steals, while Jarvis continued to impress with eight points of her own, Winderl contributed seven points, seven rebounds and five assists.
And though J-D visited Oswego the night before the CBA clash, it didn’t get sidetracked, but rather played one of its best games of the season, routing the Buccaneers 79-41. Scoring at will in the fist half, the Rams gained a 46-25 lead, and then went on a 22-8 third-quarter spurt before resting the starters.
Remarkably, eight different J-D players had six or more points. Hair led with 18 points and Vaughan put up 14 points, while O’Hern earned 11 points. Angela Bussone chimed in with nine points as Boeheim got eight points and MaryKate Scheftic seven points off the bench. Kelner andFairbanks had six points apiece.
