In their own ways, and for their own reasons, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy girls basketball teams needed to just unload on an overwhelmed opponent.
For the Red Rams, angry that it had surrendered a fourth-quarter lead and lost to Class AA powerhouse Shenendehowa on Jan. 7, most of its OHSL Freedom division opponents could not keep up, anyway, but J-D still let out some frustration in last Thursday night’s 77-24 victory over Mexico.
The first quarter was a basketball clinic on both ends, the Rams stifling on defense and capitalizing on every Tigers turnover as it accumulated a 28-2 lead. By halftime, it was 45-10, but J-D kept coming as each of the nine players in its rotation recorded at least two field goals.
Paige Keeler, in particular, stood out, setting a career mark with 19 points, two more than Meg Hair’s total of 17 points. Julia Kelner had 10 points as Momo LaClair earned eight points and Angela Bussone contributed six points. J-D will be home next Thursday for a big test against Central Square.
CBA, for its part, simply needed to show future opponents that it had to worry about what it could do, and on Thursday night against East Syracuse Minoa, that’s exactly what happened as the Brothers rolled past the Spartans 65-28.
A 20-5 push through the first quarter set the night’s tone, and CBA only deviated from it when the defense let up a bit in the third quarter. Still, it was a fine all-around effort that saw 10 different players get on the scoresheet.
Olivia Carni led the Brothers with 11 points, but Emily Hall and Broke Jarvis were close behind, with 10 points apiece. Victoria Hall got nine points as Nafysa Williams managed seven points and Rachel Krul got six points. For ESM, Sam Valentine led nine points, while Loren Clifford got seven points and Brigid McGinley added six points.
