CENTRAL NEW YORK – Up until last week, the Chittenango boys basketball team had no experience in handling a defeat.
But a Jan. 15 loss to Fayetteville-Manlius, which ended a 10-game win streak, forced the Bears into that scenario, which it seemed to handle quite well.
Jordan-Elbridge was Chittenango’s next opponent last Tuesday night, and the Bears unloaded on the Eagles, zooming out to a 64-25 halftime lead on the way to an 87-43 victory.
Doing most of his damage in the early going, Alex Moesch put up 22 points. Bryce Bishop got all of his 12 points from four 3-pointers, while Aiden Cavotta had a season-best 11 points to match Ty Kelly as all 11 Bears players that saw action got on the scoreboard.
More fun was enjoyed by Chittenango when it faced Oneida 24 hours later and again saw Bishop find a shooting groove in the first half of an 86-45 win over the Indians.
As if getting 64 first-half points against J-E wasn’t impressive enough, the Bears recorded 39 points in a hot-shooting first quarter, By the early part of the second period, Bishop had sank seven 3-pointers, ultimately adding an eighth to account for all of his 24 points.
Ryan Moesch, too, was hot from the field, hitting three times beyond the arc on his way to 20 points to beat out Alex Moesch, who got 18 points.
This led to another big test on Saturday, Chittenango taking on Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in a possible playoff preview – and if it was, the Bears have a lot to get excited about.
Handling the Red Devils 71-35, Chittenango was close to perfect in the first half, limiting VVS to a handful of shots and converting plenty on the other end to amass a 37-10 advantage.
Alex Moesch led with 18 points, with all of Bishop’s 15 points coming from five 3-pointers. Kelly produced 13 points as Ryan Moesch got nine points and Jacob Dawkins six points.
Cazenovia took a 3-9 record into last Tuesday’s game at Solvay, where it played on even terms in the second half, but only after falling behind again in a 65-56 loss to the Bearcats.
It took until the third quarter for the Lakers to find its scoring groove. By then, it trailed 31-20, Solvay seeing Gerold Bean earn 21 points as Jeff Sharpe (14 points) and Nick Commisso (13 points) closely followed.
Battling to the end, Cazenovia saw A.J. Rothfeld pour in 21 points, while Tanner Ackermann got 11 points. Jack Byrnes had nine points and Ben Bianco had six points.
