If a pair of overtime victories over powerful opponents in tough circumstances wasn’t enough to convince folks that the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball team has something special on hand, what happened on Thursday night in the Bottar-Leone Holiday Classic offered further proof.
An overflow crowd at Buddy Wleklinski Court witnessed the Red Rams falling behind host Christian Brothers Academy, only to save its best work for the fourth quarter, where it rallied to beat the Brothers 67-62.
The win improved J-D’s record to 7-0, and proved quite a follow-up to those OT wins over Westhill and Bishop Grimes the week before. Head coach Jeff Ike said his team’s trust in what’s getting taught in practice is translating into late-game success.
“The kids are buying into the system,” said Ike. “We’ve got good players, and (late in games) they remain calm and collected, and they just don’t give up.”
No one was surrendering on this night, though CBA did cause plenty of frustration for the Rams in the game’s middle stages.
The teams went back and forth at a frantic tempo until midway through the second quarter, when the Brothers’ defense forced J-D into bad shots while taking off on a 12-2 run to lead 33-25 at the half.
Led by the trio of Dan Damico, Paul Aversa and Kevin Underwood, the Brothers stretched out its lead to double digits, 43-33, late in the third quarter. At the same time, though, the Rams were laying the foundation for its comeback.
It started, as it usually does, with Buddy Boeheim, who drew plenty of contact and converted a string of free throws to give him 22 points through three quarters.
Still, J-D trailed, 46-39, but it turned for good when the Rams’ dormant outside shooting woke up. Matt Carlin, Ronald Lewis, Marcus Johnson and Takuya LaClair all hit 3-pointers. Ike said the team’s supporting cast performs well because it knows what it needs to do to help the stars like Boeheim.
Playing most of the fourth quarter with four fouls, Carlin hit a big 3-pointer with 2:59 left to give J-D a 59-55 lead. A minute later, Boeheim converted a basket, was fouled and sank the free throw to extend the margin to seven.
CBA could not quite answer it, as Boeheim, with two more free throws in the final minute, finished with 31 points. Of Carlin’s 15 points, seven of them came in the fourth quarter.
Underwood paced the Brothers with 20 points. Damico cooled off a bit in the second half, but still had 19 points as Aversa got most of his 17 points from five 3-pointers before fouling out.
This capped an opening round where, earlier in the evening, state Class B no. 9-ranked Westhill used a 23-4 third-quarter run to take charge against Cicero-North Syracuse, eventually beating the Northstars 67-44.
So Friday night’s final pitted J-D against Westhill, just 11 days after the Rams’ 73-63 OT win on the Warriors’ home floor. But the rematch a different outcome, J-D taking its first loss of the season by a score of 64-48.
Back in that first meeting, the Rams had led by double digits before a late Westhill charge forced OT. Here, the Warriors again closed strong, breaking open what had been a tight contest most of the way.
Eight straight points to open the second quarter erased J-D’s early 14-9 deficit, but it could not hold on to that advantage as Westhill went back in front, 28-26, at the break, helped by nine points apiece from Sean Dadey and Kameren Jackson.
Things stayed close throughout the third period, but the work of Dadey, Jackson and John Geer, combined with tough man-to-man defense, helped the Warriors extend its lead to double digits in the fourth quarter, with back-to-back 3-pointers by Owen Matukas proving too much for the Rams to overcome.
Boeheim still had 20 points, but worked hard for them as Darvin Lovette, who struggled against CBA, managed 18 points here. Combined, the rest of the J-D roster had just four field goals against the Warriors, who spread things out as Jackson got 17 points, Dadey and Matukas each had 15 points and Geer contributed 13 points.
In the consolation game, CBA avenged its Dec. 16 defeat at C-NS, prevailing 63-55. Hot first-quarter shooting by the Brothers produced a 26-11 lead, but the Northstars made it interesting, cutting the margin to 48-44 before the fourth quarter.
Still, CBA held on, with Aversa and Zeff Edenfield each draining five 3-pointers to lead the attack, Aversa getting 16 points and Edenfield matching Damico’s total of 15 points. Underwood had seven points as Clay Jarvis added six points.
