The great start rendered by the Jamesville-DeWitt girls basketball team left them at no. 2 in the first state Class A rankings of the season, trailing only Staten Island Academy.
And more good news followed in last Thursday night’s OHSL Freedom division opener, a 79-30 victory over Homer where the Red Rams steadily built a 33-18 halftime lead and then pulled away with a 22-4 third-quarter spurt – but that wasn’t the big story.
With one of her driving lay-up baskets, Meg Hair became the seventh J-D girls player to reach 1,000 career points, joining Amy LaCombe, Stephanie Stacer, Jennifer Passonno, Lorraine Schunck, Brittany Cohen and Jackie Sedgwick in getting to that milestone.
Given that Hair is a junior, there’s a good chance that, barring injury, LaCombe’s program record of 1,531 career points could get surpassed. For now, though, Hair just accepted the honor as part of a 24-point effort and another easy J-D victory.
On this night, every Rams player that saw action scored at least one field goal. Behind Hair, Julia Kelner managed 14 points, while Paige Keeler had 10 points. Jamie Boeheim got eight points as Gabby Stickle earned seven points and Momo LeClair got six points.
While it awaits bigger games against tougher competition, Bishop Grimes, who sit at no. 23 in the state Class B rankings, continued to pound overmatched opponents, starting with last Monday night’s game at Fulton, where the Cobras steadily built an insurmountable margin over the course of the first three periods and cruised past the Red Raiders 60-29 to make it five wins in a row.
As if sprinting out to a 16-5 lead wasn’t enough, Grimes continued its torrid pace, outscoring Fulton 16-4 in the third period to extend its lead to 49-19 before easing up a bit in the game’s latter’s stages.
Just by themselves, Azariah Wade and Brianna Squier outscored the Red Raiders, Wade finishing with 18 points and Squier contributing 17 points. Help came from Abby Wilkinson, who earned 11 points as Maria Naylor gained six points.
Back home Thursday night, Grimes made it six in a row, stomping Cortland 57-20 as a 20-4 first-quarter spurt settled matters early. Ten different Cobras players got on the scoreboard, though Wade led with 14 points as Squier got nine points. Wilkinson and Marissa Curtis had eight points apiece.
Fayetteville-Manlius had its CNY Counties League opener last Tuesday against West Genesee, who had reached the Section III Class AA finals the year before and proved it wanted to go there again by handing the Hornets a 61-48 defeat.
A quick start by the Wildcats proved quite important, F-M falling behind 22-14 despite solid production of its own. After it calmed down for a while, the pace got quick again in the third quarter, and again the Hornets tried to keep up, but WG extended its lead to 49-36.
That proved too much for F-M to overcome, though Alexis Gray earned 16 points and Abbey Harris, thanks to four 3-pointers, finished with 14 points. Elizabeth Hall added seven points, with Alexandra Vinci and Alexis Schneider earning five points apiece. Mackenzie Smith led WG with 17 points, helped by Madison Smith and Kaitlyn Walker, who had 10 points apiece.
Rebounding on Thursday night, F-M beat Corcoran 55-38, the game a close affair until the Hornets outscored the Cougars 19-7. Vinci hit on five 3-pointers to account for all of her 15 points, while Harris and Hall had eight points apiece. Reilly Baker had seven points and Gray gained six points.
East Syracuse Minoa struggled throughout last Tuesday’s 59-35 defeat to Auburn, for even when the Spartans produced baskets on a consistent basis in the first quarter, it still trailed the Maroons 23-12 when it was done, and that margin remained steady until ESM got held to a single point in the fourth quarter.
Before things went really cold, Loren Clifford did pick up 14 points for the Spartans. Rose Garris (eight points), Brigid McGinley (seven points, five of them free throws) and Sam Valentine (six points) accounted for the rest of the offense. Stefanie Gera (14 points, five rebounds) and Grace Baranick (eight points, nine rebounds, four steals) led Auburn.
