CENTRAL NEW YORK – Through the first quarter of the regular season, the Cazenovia girls basketball team stood at 2-3, but had a chance to get back on the better side of it before the holiday break.

The Lakers would find success in last Saturday’s game against Dryden, overcoming a slow start by mostly leaning on its defense to build a 46-39 victory over the Lions.

Cazenovia trailed 19-12 after Dryden shot the ball well in the first quarter. But the Lions barely achieved that point total the rest of the way in the face of a Lakers defense that wore the opposition down.

Leading by the third quarter, Cazenovia held Dryden to six points in the final period, with Ella Baker, Katie Rajkowski and Bess Johnson leading the way.

Baker finished with 18 points, just ahead of Rajkowski’s total of 17 points. Three different times, Johnson hit 3-pointers, accounting for all of her nine points.

A close game with Homer followed on Wednesday night at Buckley Gym, but Cazenovia had just enough in the end to hold off the Trojans and prevail 39-36.

Grabbing an early advantage, the Lakers held Homer to six points in the first quarter and were up 23-12 by halftime, a margin that started to shrink as the second half progressed.

Led by Catherine Apker, who had 14 points, the Trojans nearly made it back, only to have Cazenovia make some key defensive stops to protect its dwindling margin.

All the while, Rajkowski carried the attack, her 19 points nearly half the Lakers’ output. Baker finished with six points as Lucy Bliss and Hayden Bubble had five points apiece.