When basketball teams from Bishop Ludden and Westhill traveled to Le Moyne College for Sunday’s Pathfinder Bank Zebra Classic, their relative experiences proved quite different.
Each of Ludden’s teams swept their “Holy War” games with Christian Brothers Academy, but the Westhill boys not only suffered a 61-43 defeat to Chittenango, it saw its top player get sidelined.
The centerpiece of the event was the latest Ludden-CBA boys clash, which again featured teams in throwback jerseys honoring Syracuse’s old Parochial League – Ludden donning the blue and white of Cathedral High, CBA donning the maroon and gold of St. John the Baptist.
Not only did they take time honoring past Cathedral and St. John the Baptist students, they also offered a pregame tribute to Gaelic Knights head coach Pat Donnelly, who is retiring at season’s end.
Once the ovations and introductions were done, the game got going, and Ludden continued its recent domination of this series, going on a 15-0 run bridging the second and third quarters to take control.
At one point, the Gaelic Kngihts led by 21, but CBA did cut away at that margin, pulling within single digits in the final minute before Ludden put it away.
Sh’ikem Lee, with 16 points, led a well-balanced Ludden attack, with Jai Smith and Joe Connor each getting 14 points and NicButton adding 13 points. CBA’s Avion Othman, with 22 points, led all scorers, with Aaron Clendenin getting 12 points and SirVocea Dennis adding 11 points.
Just before that, the Ludden girls basketball team authored a 59-39 victory over CBA, proving that it wasn’t looking ahead to its showdown with Westhill two days later.
With the Brothers trying to hang in there, the Gaelic Knights closed the first half on a 9-0 run to lead 29-13 at the break. Then it warded off CBA and a 20-point effort from Brooke Jarvis with hot outside shooting as it finished with 11 3-pointers.
Karleigh Leo had five of those 3-pointers, accounting for all of her 15 points. Danielle Rauch also had 15 points, with three 3-pointers, as Katie Costello connected twice beyond the arc on her way to 10 points. Lauren Petrie had seven points and Amarah Streiff six points.
Before all this, there was Westhill facing the same Chittenango side it beat in last March’s Section III Class B final, but whom it needed a last-second basket from Sean Dadey to beat those same Bears earlier this season.
Here, though, everything changed in the opening minutes.
Dadey, left the game with a shoulder injury, not to return, and without him,, the Warriors wilted in the face of Chittenango’s defensive pressure, only scoring three points in the first quarter. And even when Westhill tried to get going, the Bears had an answer, building a 32-18 lead by halftime.
During the third quarter, Westhill focused in on Chittenango star Zach Falkenburg, limiting his touches, but paid for it when Dylan Voutsinas notched 11 of his 18 points, and the Bears maintained a double-digit edge.
Not once in the final period did the Warriors pull within single digits. Falkenburg, steady throughout the game, worked his total to 24 points as both he and Voutsinas outpaced Westhill’s top threats, Zechariah Brown and Holden Carroll, who had 12 points apiece.
