Everything about the week leading up to the holiday break centered on the big girls basketball games on Friday, one that pitted Westhill against Bishop Ludden and another that had West Genesee taking on undefeated Baldwinsville.
Two of those sides played last Tuesday night, while Ludden rested following its trip to the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Florida. Westhill routed ITC/Fowler 80-28 while West Genesee handled Nottingham 54-42.
Though it wasn’t looking ahead to Ludden, Westhill still had its first-half struggles with ITC/Fowler before taking off in the latter stages, and scoring a season-best 52 points in the second half.
Katelyn Karleski led with 20 points, including three 3-pointers. Jenna Larrabee set a career mark with 16 points as Imani Watts got 12 points and Erica Gangemi had 11 points. Morgan Elmer had seven points.
As that was going on, West Genesee, who had nearly knocked off Cicero-North Syracuse on Dec. 15, bounced back in advance of another key Class AA showdown with Baldwinsville that loomed later in the week.
Steadily, the Wildcats built a 29-17 halftime lead on Nottingham, and answered each of the Bulldogs’ late charges as Madison Smith led the way, earning 21 points.
Mackenzie Smith put up 11 points, with Haley Collins and Kaitlyn Walker getting six points apiece. Nottingham have five players score six or more points, but none more than Janaye Gables’ total of 11 points.
Marcellus won big on Wednesday, blasting Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 59-17 as the Mustangs surged out to a 35-8 halftime lead and dominated without a single player scoring in double figures.
Emily Card, Hannah Durand and Mei LaMarre each finished with nine points, Card adding six rebounds as Sarah Fallon got eight rebounds and three blocks. Claudia Leubner had eight points and five rebounds as Shannon Kellar got seven points and five steals. Emma MacLachlan had five rebounds.
Back on Monday night, Solvay traveled to Cazenovia, and could not recover from a rough start in a 52-25 defeat to the Lakers.
Before the Bearcats could even get on the board, Cazenovia had reeled off the game’s first 13 points. And it went from there, Solvay unable to establish any sort of rhythm against a fierce Lakers defense.
Carly Devereaux, the Bearcats’ top scorer, had just five points. Nadea Davis, Allis Posnick and Aleah Yaizzo each had four points as the Lakers got 16 points from Lindsey Lawson and 10 points from Hannah Matteson.
A night later, Jordan-Elbridge lost, 67-31, to Chittenango, but in this case the game got away in the latter stages as the Eagles nearly caught up from an early 15-6 deficit, only to go into a long late-game drought as the Bears outscored them 40-9 in the second half.
Alexis Braun still finished with nine points for J-E as Allison Jennings got eight points and Kate Goodrich got six points. Chittenango had Cassidy Kelly get 15 points and 13 rebounds, with Emily Moon getting 13 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks as Ally Shoemaker managed 13 points, 11 assists and six steals.
