ONONDAGA COUNTY – Area high schoool girls basketball teams would meet up with one another all through the transition from the end of January to the start of February.
Jamesville-DeWitt will clash with East Syracuse Minoa this Saturday at 4:45 after cold weather forced a postponement last Friday night.
They both had won last Tuesday, J-D stepping out of league play to top West Genese 42-35 as ESM fought its way to a 44-33 victory over the Oswego Buccaneers.
At West Genesee, J-D held the Wildcats to two points in a low-scoring first quarter. When both attacks picked up, the Rams were able to answer whatever WG managed to produce.
This was largely due to the duo of Aniyah Neal and Ava Sandroni. Between Neal, who had 18 points, and Sandroni, who got 14 points, they accounted for all but four of J-D’s field goals.
ESM’s effort against Oswego peaked in the third quarter. Already up 23-17, the Spartans outscored the Bucs 18-4 in those eight minutes to put the game away.
Aniyah Jones’ improvement continued as, with 17 points, she paced an ESM attack where Angelina Polcaro got 11 points and Leah Chavoustie added eight points.
While these games went on, Fayetteville-Manlius met Christian Brothers Academy and, for the second time this season, the Hornets got the best of the Brothers, this one a 37-29 decision.
F-M prevailed 47-39 when they met Dec. 8. Here, defenses controlled matters from start to finish, the Hornets held to six points in the opening period but then limiting CBA to four points in the second quarter.
From there, it was a battle on every possession, but F-M held on to it, Evie Kawa getting 11 points ahead of Ashley Schneider (seven points) and Lauren Hoffman (six points) as Chianna Williams with 15 points, accounted for most of the Brothers’ production.
Then it was CBA against Bishop Grimes on Thursday night, and with Williams finding her form again, the Brothers defeated the Cobras 61-46 to complete a regular-season sweep.
Beaten 52-19 the first time around, Grimes was far more competitive in the rematch thanks to Olivia Bitz hitting five 3-pointers to account for most of her career-best 16 points as Kierra Baxter added 12 points, Aaliyah Zachery nine points and Adrianna Scollo seven points.
Still, CBA inched out in front and then got away late because Williams could not be contained, finishing with 28 points as Llana Thomas (10 points) and Amelia Bonacci (six points) helped out.
This happened as F-M lost 50-33 to Cicero-North Syracuse, playing solid defense throughout the game, especially in the first half, yet never able to put together a scoring run of its own to threaten the defending sectional Class AA champions.
