With one impressive Section III playoff road win already in the books, the Cazenovia girls basketball team sought another one Tuesday night when it went to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill for the Class B quarterfinals.
And the Lakers did have great stretches of the game – but only after a brutal start that proved the difference in a 62-44 defeat to the Red Devils.
Cazenovia, the no. 12 seed in the sectional bracket, had knocked off no. 5 seed Marcellus 59-52 in the opening round Feb. 15. And it saw an opportunity to do the same at VVS, the no. 4 seed, who had only slipped past Central Valley Academy 55-51 in that same round.
Yet nothing the Lakers had done could prepare it for what the Red Devils unleashed at the opening tip.
From strong defense on one end to open shots that kept falling through the net on the other end, everything went right for VVS, the Red Devils not letting up until it had established a 28-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Only in the second period did Cazenovia start to find its own rhythm. And for a brief moment, the Lakers dreamed of a comeback when it limited VVS to three points in the third quarter.
Yet the rally died out in the closing minutes as Lakers junior Lindsey Lawson, in defeat, notched 23 points, leaving her just six short of the 1,000-point mark. Julia Bauder added eight points.
The Red Devils advanced to a sectional semifinal against top seed Westhill, led by Alexa Kiser’s 21 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Three other VVS players – Lindsey Foster (15 points), Morgan Brewer (13 points) and Anna Rossi (11 points) – scored in double figures.
Finishing its season 11-9, the Lakers will bring back Lawson in 2019-20 as she is likely to get that 1,000th point in the season opener. Bauder and Carleigh Szalach return, too, though the likes of Katie Ammann, Laura Connor and Hannah Matteson will graduate.
A night later, Chittenango took its turn in the Class B sectional quarterfinals at South Jefferson, but the no. 6 seed Bears met the same fate as the Lakers, unable to keep up as it lost, 66-39, to the no. 3 seed Spartans.
It was a clash between a perennial powerhouse in South Jefferson (it lost the sectional final to Bishop Ludden a year ago) and a Chittenango side itching for a breakthrough and riding an eight-game win streak, including a 62-38 victory over Hannibal in the previous round.
But the Spartans wasted no time humbling the Bears, holding them to just two points in the first quarter to establish a comfortable lead.
And if that wasn’t emphatic enough, South Jefferson, up 32-15 at halftime, proceeded to outscore Chittenango 27-8 in the third quarter, all but putting away the game.
Emily Moon had 13 points, but Ally Shoemaker, the Bears’ all-time leading scorer, was held to nine points, to go with nine assists, five steals and four rebounds as Sarah Lanphear also got nine points.
Meanwhile, the Spartans featured Jackie Piddock, who poured in a game-high 21 points, along with Abby Piddock, who had 17 points. Alyssa Stevenson had a fine all-around game, too, with 15 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks, three assists and two steals.
Chittenango closed a 13-6 campaign, made more impressive by the fact that the Bears did not have a single senior on its roster. Shoemaker, Moon, Lanphear, Mekenzie Dahlin and Cassidy Kelly all come back next winter, still hungry to produce a championship
