CENTRAL NEW YORK – Through the first 10 games of the regular season, the Cazenovia girls basketball team had stayed on even terms, moving closer to a Section III playoff berth.
Yet the Lakers have struggled against the top OHSL Liberty division sides, including Bishop Ludden, who came to Buckley Gym last Monday night and prevailed 56-30.
The Gaelic Knights built a 34-11 lead by halftime and extended the margin to 51-15 before easing up in the fourth quarter, having seen its all-time leading scorer, Amarah Streiff, lead with 16 points.
On Cazenovia’s side, most of Ella Baker’s team-high 10 points came in the late going, with Katie Rajkowski getting five of her seven points from free throws. Bess Johnson and Lucy Bliss had five points apiece.
Now the Lakers turned its attention to Friday’s game at Chittenango, a game that looked promising since the Bears only carried a 2-8 record through its first half of the regular season.
However, in front of a home crowd, Chittenango put everything together in the second quarter, breaking out of an 8-8 tie and outscoring Cazenovia 21-6 in those eight minutes.
From there, the Bears went on to win 47-34, in large part because its offense, which had struggled so much this winter, finally found some consistent production and balance.
Alazayah Smith led the way with 13 points, but Hailee Foran was close behind, earning 12 points as Mia McReynolds also got to double figures with 11 points and Abby Scheidelman had seven points.
No one on the Lakers other than Baker could produce on a consistent basis, Baker leading all scorers with 14 points as Rajkowski had six points and Hannah Ruddy five points.
