CENTRAL NEW YORK – Twice this winter, Christian Brothers Academy has engaged in a memorable basketball duel with the reigning Section III Class B champions from Chittenango.
Each time, it came down to the final play, one where Braeden Burns was a central figure – and in the case of the rematch, it was Burns, with help from Luke Boule, that helped deliver the Brothers’ 55-53 win over the Bears on Tuesday night.
When they had first met Dec. 2 in the Peppino’s Invitational, Burns had a chance, with his team down one, to hit the go-ahead free throws with less than a second to play, only to miss the front end of a one-and-one and see the clock run out.
The second encounter in Chittenango would feature an even more improbable conclusion.
Playing superb defense all night, CBA found itself leading 53-48 going into the closing seconds, only to see the Bears move within two and then, down 53-51, get the ball back.
With 1.7 seconds left, the Brothers fouled Alex Moesch. After Moesch made his first foul shot, he lined up the second – and as it swished to tie the game, Boule made his way to the other end of the court.
Burns quickly took the ball underneath his own basket. Without any hesitation, he sent a full-court pass over the hands of multiple Chittenango players.
Boule, in one motion, caught it, turned, drove and hit a lay-up just as the clock hit zero, mobbed within moments by his CBA teammates for one of the most exciting wins in the program’s long and storied history.
That game-winning pass more than made up for Burns only having seven points on the night. Boule had 12 points as Steve DeRegis led with 17 points, most of it from five 3-pointers.
For the most part, the Bears depended on its high-scoring trio. Ryan Moesch led all scorers with 20 points, Alex Moesch adding 16 points and Ty Kelly 14 points.
A few miles away, Fayetteville-Manlius had its own sort of payback in mind, remembering how West Genesee had hit a last-second basket to stun them in last winter’s Section III Class AA semifinal.
But the Hornets could not quite get it, taking a 50-45 loss to the Wildcats as its four-game win streak ended.
Through a low-scoring first half, neither side surrendered much. The pace picked up in the third quarter a bit, and F-M only trailed by one, 31-30, with one period left.
WG held on, in large part, due to free throws from Christian Cain, who finished with 16 points as Jordan Cain got 15 points. That helped to negate the 27 points and 15 rebounds from Trevor Roe, though no other F-M player had more than five points.
