Onondaga — When a group has accomplished as much as the Jamesville-DeWitt girls basketball team has done, there’s no one set formula to finding success.
It can come in the form of a 98-point outburst, which is what the Red Rams did in the Section III Class A quarterfinal against Homer, or in the shape of a second-quarter shutout, which keyed J-D’s 50-32 victory over Christian Brothers Academy in Sunday’s sectional semifinal at SRC Arena.
Since the Brothers were so familiar with the state no. 1-ranked Red Rams’ offense thanks to two regular-season encounters (won by J-D 66-46 on Dec. 18 and 57-40 on Jan. 9), it was able to contain J-D through large portions of this game.
On the other end, CBA made small inroads, but after Natalie Nardella’s lay-up with 3:12 left in the first quarter gave the Brothers a 9-6 lead, it did not get a single point for the rest of the half.
According to head coach Rob Siechen, J-D mostly relied on a zone press that, in a half-court set, made CBA have to deal with all kinds of pressure. The result was a continual flow of turnovers and rushed shots on the Brothers’ part, and growing frustration.
From the Rams’ perspective, this more that made up for modest offensive totals. While it netted 31 points in the first quarter against Homer, it didn’t get to that total against CBA until the third period, by which point it had full control.
Up 24-9 at the break, J-D extended the Brothers’ drought to more than 12 minutes, during which it went on a 22-0 run, before Paige Nicholson ended it with a 3-pointer early in the third quarter.
Yet even that came in between a pair of 3-pointers by Angela Bussone that gave the Rams a cushion against the Brothers’ long-awaited outburst later in the period.
continued — Both Bussone and Julia Kelner took the most advantage of the Brothers focusing its defensive attention on Meg Hair, who had scored 40 combined points in those two regular-season meetings.
While Hair was held to four points, Kelner, with 14 points and Bussone, with 11 points, led J-D as Carly O’Hern contributed seven points.
“I like when they try to take away players (like Hair),” said Siechen. “We have others who can contribute.”
For CBA, Nafysa Williams had nine points, with Natalie Nardella contributing eight points and Rosalee Winderl seven points.
They got to their semifinal in wildly varying manners. J-D, still atop the state Class A rankings, flattened no. 8 seed Homer 98-24 as CBA relied more on its defense to turn back the challenge of no. 5 seed Fulton in a 45-33 decision.
When the Brothers first faced the Red Raiders this season, on Jan. 7, CBA had won on the road by a 54-43 margin. But after seeing the Raiders score 66 in its first-round sectional win at Utica-Notre Dame, the Brothers were all too glad to sacrifice production for overall performance.
During the first half, CBA put constant pressure on Fulton, leading to a string of rushed shots and turnovers. Thus, despite no sustained run on its side, the Brothers still led, 25-11 at the break, and would spend the rest of the game nursing that double-digit margin.
Nardella finished with 15 points, most of it from three 3-pointers. Winderl had 11 points, while Kate Lacasse produced seven points. Though Fulton’s Sydney Gilmore led all individuals with 18 points, the rest of the Red Raiders squad had just six combined field goals.
That 45-point total was a mark J-D flew by long before halftime against a Homer side it had beaten 81-33 back on Jan. 5, and though the Trojans had won over Oneida 46-38 in the Feb. 12 opening sectional round, it would get overwhelmed by the Rams again.
continued — Strong defense, combined with red-hot shooting, gave J-D a 31-4 edge by the end of the first quarter. It was 53-12 by halftime, and right up to the end, the questions was whether the Rams would get to the century mark for the first time this season.
Though it fell a basket short of that lofty mark, J-D still connected on 11 3-pointers, three of them by Hair, who led with 22 points. O’Hern had 14 points, while Jamie Boeheim and Kasey Vaughan had 12 points apiece. Bussone and Julia Fairbanks had eight points apiece and Kelner contributed six points.
CBA fell next, and now J-D gets to return to SRC Arena next Sunday at 4:30 to try for its fifth consecutive sectional Class A championship – and waiting for them, again, is Whitesboro, the no. 2 seed, who survived Indian River 39-38 in the other semifinal.
Each of the last three years, the Rams have beaten Whitesboro in the sectional final. J-D also topped the Warriors 61-35 when they met early this season, on Nov. 27.
