Nearly two years ago, Bob McKenney was forced out of the boys basketball head coaching job at Jamesville-DeWitt, eventually taking the same post at Bishop Grimes with the full knowledge that, someday, he might cross paths with the Red Rams with something big at stake.
And that’s exactly what has taken place.
On Friday night at7:15 at SRC Arena, the Red Rams and Cobras meet in the Section III Class A semifinals, with the virtual stakes far beyond the actual stakes of a berth in next weekend’s final against Syracuse Academy of Science or Whitesboro.
McKenney made his return to J-D on Dec. 23, where the Rams pulled out a 71-67 overtime decision. Much as that hurt, it would hurt even more if the Rams, whom McKenney led to five state championships, ended Grimes’ season, while at the same time J-D would find it just as tough to stomach a defeat to its one-time leader.
This game was anticipated from the moment the sectional brackets came out, but both J-D and Grimes had to pass through sectional quarterfinal tests Tuesday night to make sure the dream match-up took place.
As the no. 2 seed, the Red Rams faced no. 7 seed Carthage, who got this far with a buzzer-beating overtime 3-pointer by Ben Peluso in the opening round against Fowler. No late-game drama came here, though, as J-D pulled away for a 64-45 victory over the Comets.
Other than a 9-2 run that tied the game 13-13 in a high-scoring first quarter, Carthage could not keep up with J-D. Even as both teams slumped late in the half, the Comets proved colder, and the Rams were able to take a 31-22 edge to the break.
Whatever doubts about the outcome that still remained were gone after J-D opened the third quarter with a 20-2 barrage. From there, Carthage never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
Buddy Boeheim’s latest double-double involved 21 points and 12 rebounds, plus seven assists. Helping out, Ronald Lewis and Takuya LeClair had 12 points apiece, Lewis adding seven rebounds and five assists as Matt Carlin got nine points, six rebounds and three assists.
While that was going on, Grimes, the no. 3 seed, welcomed no. 6 seed Homer to the “Cobra Pit”, and the game was a tense, close battle most of the way before a big fourth quarter, plus lots of defense, helped the Cobras top the Trojans 58-42.
They played on even terms in the early going, Homer leading 14-13 through one period. Then Grimes’ pressure shut the Trojans down, holding them to five points the rest of the half.
Up 27-19 at halftime, the Cobras couldn’t relax yet as it only got five points during the entire third quarter. Yet Homer couldn’t take full advantage of it, only cutting the deficit to 32-29, setting up the wild finish.
A string of outside shots gave Grimes the margin it needed, with Lucci Vigliotti connecting on six 3-pointers overall on his way to 24 points. Jonah Cummings had 12 points, while T.J. Bradford had nine points, each of them making up for the struggles of Shawn Gashi, who was held to three points. Bryant Quinlan and Riley McEvoy led Homer with 12 points apiece.
