What emerged from the first half of the Cazenovia boys basketball team’s regular season was an impression that the Lakers were more comfortable when the pace was moderate and its defense could dictate proceedings.

This worked for Cazenovia when it knocked off Mexico 47-45 on Jan. 4, and when the pace picked up in last Wednesday’s game against Institute of Technology Central at Buckley Gym, the Lakers lost to the Eagles 65-59.

ITC came into this contest with a 2-8 record, yet found success against Cazenovia’s defense from the outset. For a while, the Lakers kept up, but every time it made a move, the Eagles countered.

Drew Johnson had a big night, his 26 points accounting for nearly half of the Lakers’ output. Ty Freyer had 11 points, with Ryan Romagnoli and Keegan Bailey getting six points apiece.

On ITC’s side, Edwin Seton had 25 points, one less than Johnson, but had more substantive help as Martin Peralta and Terrell McLaughlin finished with 11 points apiece.

Two nights later, Cazenovia visited Phoenix, looking to stay above the .500 mark, but despite another big performance from Johnson the Lakers could not hold on to a late lead and fell 57-54 to the Firebirds.

Through three quarters of a closely-fought contest, Cazenovia led 38-35, and as the pace picked up in the final period, Johnson continued to add to his total, eventually getting a career-best 31 points.

Yet Phoenix still got in front, in large part because 1,000-point scorer Jack Allen carried them there. Allen poured in 38 points, including five 3-pointers, negating both the efforts of Johnson and that of his teammates as Kevin Ammann had nine points, just ahead of Romagnoli (eight points) and Bailey (six points).

All through this week, the Lakers are home at Buckley Gym, welcoming Christian Brothers Academy before a big test Thursday against Skaneateles, who was no. 13 in last week’s state Class B rankings.

A scheduled stretch of three games in four days was supposed to give Chittenango team plenty to worry about, but it only played once, emerging last Monday with a 69-48 victory over Altmar-Parish-Williamstown.

Steadily, the Bears built a 32-24 halftime lead on the Rebels, not getting away until the latter stages with hot shooting from the duo of Paul Wood and Noah Schnauffer.

Between them, Wood and Schnauffer hit nine 3-pointers as Wood gained 24 points and Schnauffer had 23 points. Alex Lum helped out, contributing 10 points.

Just 24 hours later, Chittenango was scheduled to play at Christian Brothers Academy, but weather forced a postponement until Jan. 26, and it happened again on Thursday when the Bears were supposed to travel to Marcellus.

At least the game with the Mustangs was made up 24 hours later, and with Wood and Schnauffer again lighting it up, the Bears rallied for a 60-59 victory.

What made it more remarkable was that Marcellus led 18-4 after one period, yet watched as Chittenango ate away at its deficit through the game’s middle stages and then, by outscoring the Mustangs 18-12 in the fourth quarter, inched in front.

Between them, Wood and Schnauffer made 12 3-pointers, Wood getting seven of them on his way to 34 points and Schnauffer getting most of his 18 points from five treys. That negated fine efforts by the Mustangs’ Matt Kershaw (18 points), Grayson Hoag (17 points) and Jared Sammon (12 points).