Following its first defeat of the season to Oneida Dec. 30 in the finals of the Chittenango Holiday Tournament, the Skaneateles girls basketball team got a chance to recuperate for more than a week, due to both the schedule and weather postponements.
It almost proved too restful, for when the Lakers resumed last Monday at Homer, it went through a terrible start – but led by Olivia Dobrovosky and Chloe Metz, Skaneateles overcame that trouble and beat the Trojans 57-50.
Just 2-5 going into the game, Homer surprised the Lakers with hot early shooting. By the end of the first quarter, Skaneateles trailed, 20-9, but it stayed patient and started to clamp down on defense.
That work paid off in the third quarter, when Skaneateles, still trailing 31-23 at halftime, outscored the Trojans 19-6 in that frame. Then it maintained that lead in the homestretch by matching every Homer surge.
Dobrovosky, who passed 1,000 career points in the loss to Oneida, had 16 points, including three 3-pointers, while Metz made Homer pay for the attention given to Dobrovosky by getting 16 points of her own.
Further help came from Hannah Atkinson, who had eight points, and Maeve Canty, who earned six points. On Homer’s side, Dakota Kleefeld led with 13 points, with Brenna Johnson (12 points) and Caley Cornwell (10 points) also in double figures.
After all this, the Lakers had to turn around 24 hours later and try to knock off state Class B no. 5-ranked Bishop Ludden, the defending sectional champions. And it put a serious scare into the Gaelic Knights for three quarters, only to struggle late in a 73-58 defeat.
For three quarters, neither team could pull away. Skaneateles proved that its fast start to the season was far from a fluke as 1 Dobrovosky continually got open looks all over the court, including four 3-pointers.
By game’s end, Dobrovosky would have 33 points, the most any single player has scored against the Gaelic Knights this season, and this helped the Lakers enter the final period only trailing by a field goal, 48-46.
But Ludden kept its cool and seized control in the final minutes. Danielle Rauch, more of a distributor in recent weeks, regained her scoring touch as she got 26 points and, unlike Dobrovosky, had three of her teammates hit double figures, too.
Aurora Deshaies had 18 points, with Karleigh Leo’s three 3-pointers leading to 12 points and Katie Costello contributing 11 points. Next to Dobrovosky, the next-best scorers for the Lakers were Atkinson and Metz with seven points apiece as Ryley Pas’cal had six points and Canty got five points.
Skaneateles rebounded on Thursday night, handling ITC/Fowler 73-35 in a game where a 22-4 first-quarter blitz assured the Lakers that it would have control all evening.
Dobrovosky, honored with a pregame ceremony for her 1,000-point milestone in the team’s first home game since Dec. 21, earned 15 points on this night, but all 12 Lakers players that saw action got at least one field goal.
Pas’cal led the supporting group with 12 points, while Olivia Navaroli joined Atkinson in earning eight points. Chloe Metz, Mackenzie Ward and Lyda Buck had six points apiece.
Skaneateles would take a 9-2 record into back-to-back games this week against Solvay and CBA before a Saturday showdown with rival Marcellus.
