CENTRAL NEW YORK – Off to a 4-0 start and at no. 23 in the state Class A rankings, the Bishop Grimes boys basketball team would face its first real struggles when it played in last week’s “Hoops for the Hospital” Tournament.
The Cobras fell 56-36 to Section V’s Fairport in Tuesday’s opening round, a contest where Grimes stayed close through a low-scoring first half, but could not get its offense going.
Fairport outscored the Cobras 35-19 in the second half. Only Sylvester Seton, with 14 points, made it to double figures for Grimes as Jon Corl had nine points and Deng Garang added six points.
Now Grimes had to host undefeated West Genesee, who beat Fairport 48-39 the night before and then put together another superb performance on Thursday as it rolled past the Cobras 78-47.
Grimes surrendered the game’s first 11 points, seven of them to Gary McLane, and from there the Cobras were in constant catch-up mode.
Trailing 31-12 in the second quarter, Garang put up nine points to help the Cobras stay within sight – at least until WG rattled off 13 unanswered points late in the third quarter.
Garang still finished with 16 points, with Corl (12 points) and Seton (11 points) close behind, but the rest of the roster had just one total field goal as reserve Jordan Cain netted 20 games to lead the Wildcats, ahead of Christian Amica (14 points) and Christian Cain (12 points).
Back on Tuesday, Jamesville-DeWitt went up against Central Square and, improving to 3-5 on the season, fought and clawed to a 38-32 victory over the Redhawks.
The Red Rams held Central Square to four points in the first quarter, moving out in front and then staying there, for the most part, despite its own struggles on the other end.
Aside from their defense, Brendan Kohberger produced 12 points, while Carter King finished with 10 points. Matt Keeler gained eight points as J-D visits Cortland and PSLA-Fowler this week.
East Syracuse Minoa hosted its own holiday tournament, where Wednesday it faced Cicero-North Syracuse and took a 58-37 loss to the Northstars.
C-NS, who had beaten Watertown on this same court the day before, did not have Luke Paragon in the lineup, but still took control in the second quarter with a 21-5 run that broke up an early 9-9 tie.
Only Tristan Henderson, with 10 points, scored in double figures for the Spartans as Andrew Graham added seven points. The Northstars’ duo of Andrew Benedict (21 points) and Reece Congel (16 points) combined for as many points as the entire ESM roster.
