ONONDAGA COUNTY – When they go into the Section III playoffs this week, the Christian Brothers Academy and Bishop Grimes boys basketball teams will each expect plenty from themselves.
In the Brothers’ case, the memory of last winter’s triple-overtime loss to eventual champion Liverpool in the sectional Class AA semifinals still stings, and has served as motivation.
Grimes also lost in the sectional semifinals a year ago, but its Class A quest has its emotional urgency based on head coach Bob McKenney’s continuing battle with cancer.
It just so happened that CBA and Grimes met last Wednesday, making up a Feb. 3 weather postponement, and it was all Brothers as a lopsided start led to a 71-48 victory over the Cobras.
Strong on defense, CBA forced Grimes into plenty of early mistakes, converted them and found itself up 21-4 through one period.
Though the Cobras settled down a bit, it never made up much ground, and the Brothers closed 19-9 led by the duo of Steve DeRegis and Luke Boule, who each had 21 points.
Grimes paid for paying too much attention to Braeden Burns, who still had 10 points. Nate Abernethy led the Cobras with 15 points, Deng Garang adding 13 points as Jon Corl got eight points and 13 rebounds. Erik Wall had four points.
Friday night proved quite productive for both CBA and Grimes, the Brothers again getting the best of “Holy War” rival Bishop Ludden and Grimes completing a regular-season sweep of Syracuse Academy of Science.
At Ludden, CBA jumped out big, leading 16-5 after one quarter, but the Gaelic Knights battled back and only trailed 32-28 at halftime.
However, the Brothers got away in the second half and won 67-51, carried mostly by Burns, who had 24 points, and DeRegis, who hit five 3-pointers to account for most of his 21 points. Boule had eight points and Jason Brunson got nine points.
Grimes, meanwhile, won an 87-74 decision over SAS, working its way to a 63-50 lead through three quarters while producing well inside and outside.
For the second time in three games, Garang hit the 30-point mark, finishing with 33 to go with eight rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Corl, red-hot from the perimeter, hit a career-best seven 3-pointers on his way to 24 points overall as Abernethy got 11 points and Chol Mo addded nine points. For the Atoms, Josiha Johnson had 21 points and nine rebounds, with Davon Perry adding 16 points as Andre Pasha got 11 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks.
