CENTRAL NEW YORK – For much of December, the Skaneateles girls basketball team kept building up momentum, knocking off a wide variety of opponents.
This culminated Dec. 23 at Jamesville-DeWitt, where the Lakers put away the Red Rams 45-34 with a steady, methodical performance for its sixth victory in a row.
In every single quarter, Skaneateles was able to outscore J-D, all the while playing consistent defense that never allowed the Rams any single sustained run.
Balancing out its attack well, the Lakers saw Maddy Ramsgard put in 14 points, while Ayla Pas’cal finished with 12 points and Maeve McNeil, with 10 points, also hit double figures.
At some point in the future, Bishop Ludden will need to ponder life without its do-everything junior forward, Amarah Streiff.
The Gaelic Knights got a glimpse of this on Dec. 20 when it lost to Rome Free Academy without an injured Streiff. When she returned late in the week for Ludden’s game against Homer, though, it was a different story.
Prevailing 72-46, the Gaelic Knights, who did not have Kaitlin Kibling in the lineup, built a 32-16 edge by halftime and just kept going despite 31 points from Trojans star Grace Patriarco.
For her part, Streiff poured in 30 points, adding 12 rebounds and three assists, getting help from Ava Carpener, who had 10 points, and Sarah Boyea and Sophia Chemotti, who had nine points apiece. Elizabeth Gaughan had six points and seven rebounds, with Bridget Dunham also getting
West Genesee, still in search of its first win of the season, would not find it Dec. 23 against Rome Free Academy, taking a 71-58 defeat to the Black Knights.
RFA bolted out to a 21-8 edge and maintained it the rest of the way despite Molly Benetti’s career-best 22 points as Erin DiPaola had 16 points and Mollie James got 11 points.
Amya McLeod poured in 28 points to lead the Black Knights, aided by 17 points from Tailyn Frost and 13 points from Mia Mirabelli.
But the skid finally ended last Tuesday when WG defeated Norwich 47-41, doing so by using a 13-2 third-quarter runto overcome a 30-19 halftime deficit. Benetti had 16 points, with James adding 12 points.
Two days later, an even bigger victory was nearly achieved in a rematch with RFA that was part of WG’s participation in the “Hoops for the Hospital” tournament at Bishop Grimes.
Trailing 15-9 early, the Wildcats pulled even, 27-27, by halftime, and the pattern repeated itself in the second half, the Black Knights moving in front but WG not letting the game get away.
Down three with less than 20 seconds left, the Wildcats drew even when DiPaola drained a 3-pointer, only to have McLeod fouled with nine seconds to play.
McLeod, who had a game-high25 points, sank both free throws, and when WG could not answer it, it had lost 55-53, despite a well-balanced attack where Brianna Drury had 12 points, DiPaola and James getting 11 points apiece.
