To say that the Bishop Ludden girls basketball team won its first Section III championship since 2006 is far too kind.
What the Gaelic Knights did to Bishop Grimes in Sunday’s sectional final at Onondaga Community College’a Allyn Hall was chase, pressure and beat the Cobras into submission, not letting up until a 56-26 victory was secure.
There was reason to think that Grimes could make Ludden worry, for it had done so in their lone regular-season meeting at East Syracuse on Feb.9, the Gaelic Knights prevailing 51-45 only after the Cobras saw a frantic late comeback fall short.
As they met again, with both of them coming off narrow sectional semifinal wins (Ludden over South Jefferson, Grimes over Westhill), the Gaelic Knights anticipated that Danielle Rauch would draw the Cobras’ best defender, guard Molly McInerney, and didn’t worry about it, since it had other offensive options.
Before all that, though, the two sides had to wait out a sectional Class C final between Thousand Islands and Syracuse Academy of Science that stretched out to three overtimes before the Vikings pulled it out, 54-52.
The long delay before the scheduled tip-off affected both sides, at least at the outset. Other than the six points put up by forward Azariah Wade, the Cobras’ shots were well off-line, and Ludden wasn’t much better, the game tied 8-8 after one quarter.
Then Ludden’s defensive clinic got underway. It mostly involved full-court pressure that made sure Grimes never got the ball inside to Wade, and it worked to perfection.
Thanks to a series of steals and other forced turnovers, the Gaelic Knights held the Cobras to just two field goals in the second quarter and steadily built a 26-14 lead by halftime.
Continuing to apply relentless pressure every time Grimes had the ball, Ludden settled matters in the third quarter, outscoring the Cobras 22-5 to make it a combined 40-11 run over the course of the middle periods.
What made it even more impressive was the fact that the offense was far less dependent on Rauch that it was in previous sectional playoff games. Rauch only had 15 points, but her all-around contributions remained substantial, and she had plenty of help.
Laura Patulski’s strong recent play continued as she got 12 points. Meg Sierotnik got into double figures, too, with 11 points, while Aurora Deshaies, shut out in the South Jefferson game, had seven points and Ally Weigand got five points.
This Saturday, Ludden returns to Allyn Hall to face Section IV champion Binghamton Seton Catholic in the Class B regional final, with the prize a trip to Troy’s Hudson Valley Community College for the March 17-18 state final four.
