Through 500-plus victories and a slew of league and Section III titles, Christian Brothers Academy boys basketball head coach Buddy Wleklinski has seen his fair share of special teams, players and moments.
Yet in the wake of the Brothers knocking off Jamesville-DeWitt 63-61 Saturday night at SRC Arena to claim the Section III Class A championship, Wleklinski was compelled to call it as special as anything in his long and storied career.
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of players,” said Wleklinski. “At 1-4 (earlier this season) we could have called it quits, but we showed our character. They (J-D) had the better players, but we had the better team.”
It was the kind of team that, on this night, would dazzled with its outside shooting early, and then inspire with the way it responded down the stretch when the Red Rams erased a double-digit deficit to lead in the fourth quarter.
“We’re a hard-fighting team and, in the end, it all came together,” said sophomore guard Dan Anderson, who had 23 points and earned sectional tournament MVP honors.
Confidence was not an issue for either side carrying long win streaks into the sectional final, J-D having won 14 in a row and CBA having claimed 12 straight.
And while the Rams had won 80-60 when they met on this exact same floor on Dec. 7, everyone on both teams knew how much the Brothers had improved since that game, and the final reflected that growth.
What it was during the first half was a stunning display of accuracy from CBA’s entire lineup, particularly Anderson and junior Sam Haas.
The Brothers took 21 shots and made 14 of them, including eight of 11 from three-point range. Anderson and Haas each going four-for-five beyond the arc as CBA led by as much as 12 and took a 39-31 edge to the break.
That margin grew to 10 again in the third quarter before J-D, down 46-36, put together an 11-0 run, Payton Shumpert overcoming a slow start to hit back-to-back 3-pointers as the Rams went in front.
Yet even when Shumpert drained three more 3-pointers to stretch J-D’s lead to 56-52 midway through the fourth quarter, CBA did not blink.
“We never got frantic,” said Wleklinski. “I just told (the players) to calm down and make regular plays.”
And the Brothers did so, whether it was rebound baskets from Kamren Harris or the defense that the likes of Chris Catalano, Ryan Mackenzie and Luke Valenti played down the stretch.
With 2:58 left, Colin Kelly’s 3-pointer cut J-D’s lead to one, and a minute later Anderson hit again from deep, giving CBA a 58-56 lead that vanished when Preston Shumpert hit on a driving layup.
With the game tied at 58 and the shot clock winding down, Jason Boule, off balance and with one leg in the air, hit the 3-pointer that put the Brothers in front for good.
After Tre Autry sank a pair of free throws, the Brothers worked down the clock until, with 10 seconds left, Anderson hit an off-balance driving layup.
“I just threw it up and went in,” said Anderson.
Now up by three, 61-58, CBA made sure Payton Shumpert, who had scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, didn’t get a tying 3-point attempt off before getting fouled with 2.2 seconds to play.
Shumpert made the first foul shot and deliberately missed the second, hoping for a rebound, but CBA got to it first and ran out the remaining clock.
Though he cooled off in the second half, Haas still finished with 17 points as Autry got 15 points, Preston Shumpert 12 points and Matt Cieplicki eight points for J-D.
As newly-crowned sectional champions, CBA will face Malone (Section X) in a regional game Wednesday at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, hoping to advance to a regional final against the Section II champions next weekend.
“I love our chances,” said Anderson. “We’re a hot team and I fell no one can stop us right now.”
