When the Bishop Ludden and Westhill girls basketball teams stepped on the court to clash with each other on the Wednesday before Christmas, they got there having taken vastly different paths to their first meeting since last winter’s Section III Class B semifinal.
Everything had gone right for the Gaelic Knights in a series of lopsided victories early this season, but the Warriors had taken a far rougher path, having already played Hannibal, Syracuse Academy of Science and Indian River, going 2-1 against those sides.
The loss came to Indian River on Dec. 10, a 66-54 decision, but Westhill didn’t have much time to recover for, two nights later, it was at Christian Brothers Academy, a team Ludden had routed 76-22 earlier in the month.
This, by contrast, wasn’t a rout, but the Warriors prevailed, 49-40, over the Brothers, a game where, over the course of the first three periods, Westhill built up a 40-29 lead and learned plenty about its own capabilities.
On the heels of a 29-point effort at Indian River, Mackenzie Martin was held to a season-low eight points by CBA. But Morgan Elmer more than made up for it, hitting on three 3-pointers and finishing with 21 points overall as Katelyn Karleski contributed nine points and Erica Gangemi got seven points.
It also helped that Westhill’s defense remained steady and tough, never letting any single CBA player get a hot hand. Nafysa Williams paced the Brothers with 10 points, closely followed by Brooke Jarvis (nine points) and Olivia Carni (eight points).
Weather would cause havoc with the schedules later in the week, as Westhill’s game against Solvay on Thursday night was postponed and Jordan-Elbridge had a game against Cazenovia, originally set for last Tuesday night, moved to Jan. 27 before Thursday’s game with Bishop Grimes was snowed out.
Ludden would return to action Friday night, against Pulaski, and once again flattened an opponent, doing all of the damage in the first half of a 72-26 victory over the Blue Devils.
Combining offensive production with defensive pressure, the Gaelic Knights gained a 22-8 lead through one period, but did even more damage in the second quarter where it shut out Pulaski and earned 26 consecutive points.
The margin got to 66-14 before Ludden backed off late, but Danielle Rauch had still nearly earned a rare quadruple-double, amassing 15 assists, 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine steals.
And Rauch was far from alone. Aurora Deshaies had 18 points and 14 rebounds, with Meg Sierotnik stepping up for 17 points, five steals, three rebounds and three assists. Laura Patulski earned 13 points and Taj Huddleston finished with seven points.
