For a long while Saturday night, it didn’t matter much that the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball team was 8-0 or that Christian Brothers Academy stood at 3-4.
The two neighbors were locked in a close, tense, low-scoring battle, just as the Brothers wanted, but in this instance the Red Rams did not let it linger until the end, closing on a 13-2 run to prevail 56-42.
A season ago, on this same court, J-D had triumphed over CBA on a controversial last-second basket. Now it came into the Brothers’ annual holiday tournament undefeated and up to no. 15 in the state Class A rankings.
Yet from the outset the Brothers’ man-to-man defensive pressure frustrated J-D. No possession was easy, and the Rams didn’t hit a 3-pointer until Payton Shumpert did so late in the second quarter.
By then, CBA’s own anemic attack had come to life thanks to a trio of 3-pointers from Nick Valenti. That helped whittle a nine-point J-D advantage down to three, 22-19, by halftime.
The second half saw the pace pick up, with the Rams using an 11-2 run to build a 33-21 advantage, only to have the Brothers counter with eight straight points and cut the margin to 35-32 late in the period.
Much the same thing happened in the fourth quarter, J-D building the margin to eight, CBA cutting it to three, 43-40, but seconds after that happened, Matt Cieplicki hit a driving lay-up, triggering the Rams’ final surge.
Robinson and Schulman combined for nine points in that final push as Robinson scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, matching Cieplicki’s total of 16 points.
A day later, CBA lost, 60-46, to Henninger, who overcame the Brothers’ 24-22 halftime lead with a big second half as Travis Grey got 13 points to lead the Black Knights, with Tong Mading and Jonah Alston adding 12 points apiece.
Valenti cooled off a bit from his J-D efforts, but still had 12 points, matching Aaron Clendenin with that total as Dan Anderson got seven points and Sam Haas added six points.
J-D-CBA was not the only local showdown on the last weekend of 2018. Bishop Grimes and Fayetteville-Manlius met on Friday in the Hoops for the Hospital Classic at SRC Arena, with the Cobras pulling away for an 81-61 victory over the Hornets.
Grimes threatened to get away early as it raced to a 28-13 lead by the end of the first quarter. Steadily, F-M ate into that deficit over the course of the next two periods and only trailed by three, 57-54, with one period left.
Just as J-D would do against CBA, though, the Cobras closed strong, outscoring F-M 24-7 the rest of the way as T.J. Bradford would lead the way, earning 26 points. David Mo had 17 points, with Jack Gutchess adding 14 points and Nate Gay earning 11 points.
F-M also had four players score in double figures, with Josh Michel getting 20 points. Ethan Page and Kieran Miller each got 12 points and Zach Page had 11 points, the quartet combining to hit nine 3-pointers.
A day later, both teams played again at SRC Arena, with Grimes winning its tournament bracket by routing Auburn 78-50 as F-M bounced back to defeat Ithaca 70-67.
The Cobras steadily built a 61-33 lead through three quarters on Auburn, this time with Mo setting the pace thanks to his 21 points. Bradford got 17 points as Gay added 12 points and Gus O’Connell had 10 points.
To beat Ithaca, F-M had to overcome an early 18-10 deficit, outscoring the Little Red 23-10 in the second quarter, and then answering each Ithaca charge with one of its own, especially down the stretch.
Michel continued to pour in baskets, finishing with 19 points, with Luke Davidson adding 11 points. Noah Craig and Ethan Page had nine points apiece, but F-M’s depth made a difference as eight different players recorded at least two field goals.
Back on Friday, East Syracuse Minoa hosted New Hartford and, improving to 7-2 on the season, won this Spartan clash 47-40.
Coming off a Dec. 20 defeat to Central Square, ESM was cold at the start, held to five points in the first quarter, but it inched in front of New Hartford 20-18 by halftime and then managed to stay in front despite its uneven offense.
All eight ESM players that saw action got at least one field goal, but no one had more than Jackson Palumb’s total of nine points as Nick Peterson and Gavin Houghtaling each got eight points. Dennis Benjack added six points.
