A potential rout had turned into a potential disaster for the Christian Brothers Academy boys basketball team, who trailed its neighbors from Jamesville-Dewitt late in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s Section III Class A semifinal at SRC Arena.
But it was just where Brothers senior point guard Nick Aversa wanted to be.
“I want the ball in my hands,” said Aversa. “And I didn’t want this season to end.”
Mainly thanks to Aversa’s clutch shooting and superb work on the defensive side, CBA’s hopes for defending its sectional title remain alive, having subdued the Red Rams 49-43 in order to advance to next Saturday’s title game at 4:30 against Utica-Notre Dame, who beat Watertown 68-54 in the other semifinal.
That the game even required Aversa’s heroics was a tribute to the resilience J-D showed after a nightmarish start where it fell behind 13-0 and netted just four field goals in the entire first half, trailing by as much as 28-11 at one point.
It was also a case of the Rams, who split two regular-season meetings with CBA, making the Brothers pay for slowing down the game’s tempo once it had that big lead.
“We just stopped attacking the basket and never got that momentum back,” said CBA head coach Buddy Wleklinski.
Though it surrendered an early barrage of 3-pointers, J-D stayed in its 2-3 zone, never letting the Brothers get any transition baskets and gradually frustrating them. For an 11-minute stretch in the second and third periods, CBA managed just one field goal.
That gave the Rams ample time to overcome its early cold shooting and make a run. Jimmy Boeheim, who had just two points in the first half, got six points in J-D’s 11-0 run that turned the game into a tense thriller.
When Rahmell Smith hit a runner with 3:52 left, the Rams went ahead, 40-39, and though Mark Lutz answered with a 3-pointer, Buddy Boeheim countered with a basket and free throw that again put J-D in front, 43-42.
And that was where Aversa, normally a distributor, seized the moment. From the top of the key, Aversa’s 3-pointer with 2:22 left rattled through the rim and gave his team the lead for good.
After misses on both ends, Dan Damico hit a key reverse lay-up with less than a minute to play. Then J-D’s Barbaro Noda missed two free throws and, forced to foul, the Rams put Aversa on the line with 23.5 seconds left. He made them both, and then promptly made a steal to clinch the victory.
For the night, Aversa had 10 points, trailing only Lutz (14 points) on his side as Damico added nine points and Charles Pride seven points. Jimmy Boeheim finished with 11 points, two more than Buddy Boeheim as Matt Carlin and Darvin Lovette had eight points apiece.
To get to this game, both had to go through last Wednesday’s sectional Class A quarterfinals at home – and did so, with CBA pulling away from no. 9 seed New Hartford 68-44 and J-D handling no. 5 seed Whitesboro 78-65.
Having received a first-round bye, the Brothers were well-rested by the time New Hartford, who had handled Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 67-44 in its opening-round game Feb. 12, paid a visit.
CBA didn’t show that much rust, though, especially on the defensive side, where it held the Spartans to nine points in the first quarter. Outscoring New Hartford in each period, the Brothers had a 35-22 edge by halftime and did not let up one bit.
Lutz earned a majority of his 23 points through four 3-pointers, adding four rebounds and two block. Pride had a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds, plus five assists as Damico got 16 points and four rebounds. New Hartford got 12 points from Nick Courto and Noah German, plus 10 points from Franke Policelli.
Meanwhile, New Hartford’s main rival, Whitesboro, was coming off a 57-39 first-round win over Mexico and trying to keep J-D (who had ousted Cortland 83-60 in the opening round) from earning another shot at CBA, but could not do so in large part because the Boeheim brothers proved impossible for the Warriors to contain.
Whitesboro could not keep pace in the first half, the Rams leading 21-16 after one period and doubling that margin to 37-27 by halftime. Then, throughout the second half, J-D kept responding any time the Warriors, led by Josh Gregory (who poured in 30 points), tried to make it more stressful.
Constantly, Jimmy and Buddy Boeheim drew fouls, and made Whitesboro pay for it as Jimmy earned 10 of his 26 points at the free-throw line and most of Buddy’s 24 points came from 16 successful foul shots. Lovette did the same, with seven of his 13 points coming from free throws as Carlin finished with 11 points.
