A stark, cold dividing line marked one portion of the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball season from the other.
The revelation early last week that the Red Rams’ leading scorer, Teleak Robinson, was arrested three times in the previous 12 months cast a shadow over the team’s 9-0 start.
Now without Robinson, J-D had defeated East Syracuse Minoa on Jan. 4, but lost to Whitesboro a night later. Then it would not play for a week as the controversy over Robinson unfolded.
By the time J-D faced Syracuse Academy of Science on Saturday, it was eager to get going again. The Rams beat the Atoms in the Dec. 1 final of J-D’s invitational tournament.
Here, in the rematch, the Rams would prevail again, handling SAS 61-46 to improve to 11-1 overall and have some momentum going into Tuesday night’s big clash at 10-0 Central Square.
Far from all this turmoil, ESM had continued its fine season, hosting Oswego last Tuesday night and rolling to an 85-57 victory over the Buccaneers.
Dennis Benjack (12 points) and Nick Peterson (11 points) both had their way against Oswego’s defense in the early going as the Spartans steadily accumulated a 43-26 halftime lead, and the margin kept growing from there.
Eventually, five ESM players scored in double figures, Peterson finishing with 19 points and Benjack getting 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Jack Shields had a season-best 14 points as James Ferns got 12 points and Devin Mascato-Buffaloe added 10 points.
This set up a Friday-night trip to Fulton where the Spartans got involved in a close, tense battle not decided until the final seconds, when ESM did enough to edge the Red Raiders 53-51.
The win capped a slow, steady comeback after Fulton jumped to a 16-10 first-quarter lead. Not allowing things to get away, the Spartans caught up, 39-39, by the end of the third period, setting up an exciting stretch duel.
Leading the way, Mascato-Buffaloe poured in 16 points, with Peterson getting 12 points. Shields finished with nine points, just ahead of James Ferns (seven points) and Matt Burcil-Wright (six points) as Jake Gugula paced Fulton, also getting 16 points.
Fayetteville-Manlius, attempting to find some kind of momentum in the first full week of 2019, went to Baldwinsville last Wednesday night following a 24-hour weather postponement.
But the Hornets caught the Bees at the wrong time, just as its lineup was returning to full strength, and F-M took a 70-42 defeat, unable to get its offense going for any sustained period.
Luke Davidson had 12 points and Sal Angotti produced 11 points, but no other Hornets player had more than four points. Meanwhile, B’ville’s Jake Marshall, returning to the lineup after missing nearly a month with an ankle injury, had 14 points to help star freshman J.J. Starling, who led both sides with 22 points.
Now F-M faced Cicero-North Syracuse on Friday night, and against one of the area’s best defenses, the Hornets suffered through an ice- cold first half and 59-42, to the Northstars.
F-M had just two points in the first quarter and only five points in the second period, only breaking out of its slump in the second half as Ethan Page poured in 17 points and Josh Michel helped out with 14 points.
C-NS spread its production around, led by Justin DelVecchio, who had 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Brayden McLean added nine points as Kyle Haas got eight points and seven rebounds.
