Throughout a 10-10 regular season, the Cazenovia girls basketball team had faced brutal competition in the OHSL Liberty division, something that affected the win total, but gave the Lakers reason to think it could make some noise once the Section III Class B playoffs got underway.
Assigned the no. 12 seed, the Lakers would travel to no. 5 seed Sherburne-Earlville for last Friday’s opening round of the sectional tournament, and would lead at halftime, but fell victim in the late going to the tough defense of the Marauders as its season ended in a 45-36 defeat.
Neither side got off to a smooth start, but Cazenovia, trailing 10-7 after one period, parlayed a strong second quarter into a 22-19 advantage at the break. Yet it could not hang on, S-E moving back in front by the end of the third period.
Any hopes for another rally by the Lakers fizzled when it only managed two points in the fourth quarter. All the good stuff done early by Danielle Tedesco and Lucy Connor, who each had 12 points, and Saige Ackermann, who got eight points, could not get repeated in the homestretch.
S-E, who advanced to face Bishop Ludden in the Class B quarterfinals, saw 1,000-point scorer Lily Berg dominate in the paint with 18 rebounds and 15 points, while Samantha Irwin added 11 points and five rebounds. Lexi Elderkin (nine points) and Miranda Wright (six points, six rebounds) helped the Marauders, too.
Long before all this, the Lakers, with a chance to clinch a winning record for 2015-16, could not quite do so in the regular-season finale at Buckley Gym, taking a 46-43 defeat to Utica-Notre Dame.
The Jugglers won the state Class B championship in 2014, but struggled enough after the graduation of Emily Durr (she’s now at Iowa State) that it fired its head coach, Mike Plonisch, a year later, replaced by Olivia Tooley.
At 6-10, the Jugglers were still playoff-eligible because it had gone 5-5 in the Tri-Valley League, and it showed that toughness by jumping out to a 15-7 lead on Cazenovia, though the Lakers made up most of that ground by halftime, only trailing by one, 19-18.
It stayed close the rest of the way, Cazenovia inching into a 33-32 lead by the fourth quarter, but unable to hang on despite a big night from Tedesco, who poured in 24 points, more than half her team’s output. Connor and Kaylee Cunnigham had seven points apiece. On UND’s side, Francesca Laino led with 19 points and five rebounds, with Claire Sehring adding 10 points and six rebounds.
Chittenango, who would not reach the sectional tournament on the Class A side, ended its season last Tuesday night, at Fulton, where it took a 48-37 defeat to the Red Raiders.
No single run did in the Bears. Instead, Fulton steadily gained control by building a 38-27 lead through three periods, getting 14 points from Sydney Gilmore, eight of them at the free-throw line, while Emilee Hyde had 10 points and Nicole Hansen nine points.
On Chittenango’s side, Morgan Shoemaker hit a trio of 3-pointers and earned 14 points overall, with Megan Pierce adding 11 points. No other Bears player had more than the four points put up by Trisha Whaley and Madison Heller as the team finished with a 6-14 record.
