Cicero — If there’s a difference between the current Jamesville-DeWitt girls basketball team and the past two editions that fell one victory short of a state Class A championship, it’s that it can prove just as potent and effective putting the ball in the net as it is keeping the opposition from doing the same.
This is something the state no. 1-ranked Red Rams demonstrated Wednesday night when it defeated Section II champion Averill Park 67-54 in the Class A regional semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Facing a rare deficit in the second quarter, J-D turned that around in a big way, outscoring the Warriors 34-9 over a stretch spanning deep into the third period, something from which Averill Park could not recover.
These two sides have grown familiar with each other over the years. During J-D’s run of five consecutive Section III titles, it has met Averill Park four times in regional play, losing in 2012 and 2013, but prevailing a year ago.
Here, Averill Park brought a young lineup (just one senior on the roster), but lots of built-in resilience that came from meeting Class AA sides most of the season.
So it didn’t faze the Warriors when J-D bolted out to an 11-2 lead in the first three minutes. Instead, Averill Park caught up and, early in the second quarter, went out in front, 19-16.
But it was there that J-D took over, on both ends. Once its defense settled down into its normal pressure, the Warriors got forced into bad shots and turnovers, and were shut out for a stretch of more than four minutes.
More importantly, the Rams’ multifaceted attack kicked into gear. Similar to the 15-0 run that put away Whitesboro in the sectional Class A final, J-D had a 13-0 spurt here, and closed the half 18-4.
continued — During that key run, six different players – Angela Bussone, Julia Fairbanks, Jamie Boeheim, Meg Hair, Carly O’Hern and MaryKate Scheftic – had baskets, with Scheftic’s 3-pointer right before the horn extending J-D’s lead to 39-25 at the break. Bussone had eight of her 10 points in the second quarter.
Not content with that, the Rams kept extending its lead in the third quarter as Hair got 10 of her game-high 23 points in that period, including a pair of step-back 3-pointers.
At one point in the fourth quarter, J-D’s margin got to 58-35, which it would need since Averill Park made a frantic comeback with a 14-2 run, but baskets by Hair and Julia Kelner, who finished with 13 points, helped the Rams put it away.
On Saturday, J-D faced Section X champion Franklin Academy at SUNY-Potsdam in the Class A regional final, needing to win that game to return to Troy’s Hudson Valley Community College for next weekend’s state final four.
And it proved quite easy for the Red Rams, who flattened Franklin 72-35 and not only booked its return engagement with the state final four, but also handed head coach Rob Siechen his 200th career victory.
This milestone was not stressful to attain. J-D, who earned a single-season school-record 24th victory this winter, bolted out to a 20-5 lead by the end of the first quarter and had the margin to 38-16 by halftime. That lead continued to grow in the second half as Siechen, knowing that bigger games lay ahead, rested his starters in the late going.
Each of the 11 J-D players that saw action earned at least one field goal. O’Hern led with 16 points, while Boeheim contributed 13 points. Kelner and Scheftic notched eight points apiece as Fairbanks got seven points and Hair had just six points.
Now it’s back to Hudson Valley Community College, where the quest for a long-elusive state title will end in either glory or disappointment. J
-D meets Rochester Mercy (Section V) in Friday’s state semifinal at 1:30, with the winner returning to HVCC the next night at 7 p.m. for the state title game against Rye (Section I) or Floral Park (Section VIII).
