When the Christian Brothers Academy boys basketball team went east to face Utica Proctor in Friday night’s opening round of the Section III Class AA playoffs, its motivation went beyond surviving one tournament game and advancing to another.
If the no. 9 seed Brothers prevailed here against the no. 8 seed Raiders, it would get a third chance at upending its biggest rival, top seed Bishop Ludden, in next Tuesday’s sectional quarterfinal, another renewal of the “Holy War” one week after CBA’s comeback attempt against Ludden fell just short in a 54-52 defeat.
And that’s exactly what the Brothers accomplished.
Despite Utica Proctor’s vaunted home-court advantage, CBA matched baskets with them at the outset and, more importantly, played superb defense the rest of the way to earn a 50-43 victory over the Raiders.
The tone of this game would change in a big way after a first quarter where neither side could stop the other from converting. CBA did a little better at this and claimed a 20-18 lead, after which it held Proctor to just 15 total points in the next two quarters.
Even with that, though, the Brothers could not get away, only extending its lead to 39-33 before the fourth quarter and seeing the Raiders move within a basket in the waning minutes. Through it all, though< CBA stayed patient, and late free throws helped seal a post-season win.
Kevin Underwood didn’t get close to some of the big numbers he has posted in recent weeks, but still led with 15 points as Dan Damico contributed 13 points. Zeff Edenfield had nine points and Avion Othman added seven points. For Proctor, Orion Anyango and DeShawn Stanley got 11 points apiece.
Back when Ludden visited CBA earlier in the week, the storylines went beyond the usual rivalry narratives.
Earlier this month, Ludden head coach Pat Donnelly had informed his players that he was getting treated for prostate cancer. He then coached the Gaelic Knights to a come-from-behind win at Rochester Aquinas on Feb. 6, avenging what was, at the time, its lone defeat of the season.
Then, while Donnelly recuperated and assistant Len Rauch handled the head coaching duties, Ludden saw its 11-game win streak end Feb. 11 at home with an 83-77 loss at home to Syracuse Academy of Science.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Rauch was hospitalized on Tuesday, dealing with a heart condition (he was released the next day), meaning that Ludden athletic director Gallagher Driscoll had to step in to coach, giving the Gaelic Knights three different head coaches in three games.
It was under these circumstances that Ludden had to go to Buddy Wleklinski Court to deal with a CBA side desperate for a win to break the Gaelic Knights’ recent win streak in this heated series.
Quite unlike the Jan. 14 game at Le Moyne College where a 24-0 mid-game run keyed Ludden’s 53-41 win, this edition of the Holy War would have some drama to it. CBA did not crack when the Gaelic Knights seized an early lead and didn’t let up until it had a 31-22 halftime edge.
Instead, the Brothers’ attack heated up, and while it didn’t have an immediate payoff, it started to have an impact when Ludden went cold in the fourth quarter, held to just seven points and nearly surrendering all that it had built.
Led by senior Dan Damico, who poured in 24 points, and Kevin Underwood, who had 14 points, CBA drew within a basket, but could not quite catch up. The Gaelic Knights held on behind 13 points from Mika Adams-Woods and Sh’ikem Lee, with Joe Connor adding 11 points and Ed Walser earning eight points.
As it turned out, though, all this did was lead Ludden and CBA back toward each other once more, a third Holy War with far bigger stakes than the first two meetings – namely, a berth in next Saturday’s sectional AA semifinal at SRC Arena against no. 4 seed Liverpool or no. 5 seed Central Square.
