SYRACUSE – Twenty-five days had passed since the Westhill girls basketball team had taken the court for a game, but judging from the way it played once that long stretch had ended, it hadn’t hurt the product.
Even short-handed with just eight players dressed, the Warriors Monday night and, by a score of 58-37, put an end to the Lakers’ six-game win streak.
Back on Dec. 16, Westhill, led by Catherine Dadey’s 33 points, had defeated Homer to bounce back from a loss to Bishop Grimes. That put the Warriors at 4-1.
Then COVID-19 intervened. Two games during the holiday break were postponed, as was a Jan. 7 showdown with neighbor Bishop Ludden that the two sides hope to make up on Feb. 14.
Meanwhile, Skaneateles had not paused at all. Following a 1-2 start, the Lakers had caught fire, beating the likes of Bishop Grimes and Jamesville-DeWitt on the way to a no. 13 state Class B ranking.
All of this, plus the fact that Westhill did not have one of its top scores, Janiah Robinson, in the lineup, suggested that the Warriors would need time, trial and error to regain its early-season form.
That did not prove the case.
Defensively, Westhill set the tone, holding Skaneateles without a field goal for the entire first quarter while building a 16-4 advantage, Dadey contributing seven of those points.
The Lakers didn’t get to double digits until just before halftime, and saw its deficit grow in the third quarter before finally finding the basket on a consistent basis.
Maddy Ramsgard, with 15 points, paced Skaneateles, while Ayla Pas’cal had eight points, but the Warriors’ strong execution, always seeming to make the extra pass to find an open look, prevented any kind of comeback.
Dadey, who finished with 16 points, was helped in a big way by Kate Henirich, who had 15 points, and Julianne Bleskoski, who set a season mark with 14 points.
This game marked a return for area girls basketball after a quiet first full week of 2022, but then winter weather and cold temperatures forced a postponement of more games on Tuesday.
