CENTRAL NEW YORK – Another season of area high school girls basketball is underway, with important changes in the structure of classes, along with a big coaching change, part of the equation.
These story lines collided quickly when Jamesville-DeWitt hosted Fayetteville-Manlius Thursday night, and it was the Red Rams who emerged with a 46-36 victory over the Hornets.
F-M is now under the guidance of head coach Anthony Bielak, who took over for Scott DeForest and hopes to make the Hornets a prime Class AA contender now that many of the top large schools, like Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse, are up in Class AAA.
Meanwhile, J-D is still in Class A, and against the Hornets it emerged from a mid-game drought with a big third quarter where, by o utscoring F-M 15-4, it managed to erase a 21-17 halftime deficit and move in front for good.
Basically, the Rams were a two-player attack. Ava Sindroni found her total of 19 points matched by teammate Savannah Schnorr, their production making up for the fact that the rest of the J-D squad had just four total field goals.
By contrast, no Hornets player reached double figures. Taylor Novack finished with eight points, while Mia Knuth and Lydia Davidson had seven points apiece.
In a different space is Bishop Grimes, who returns everyone from a squad that struggled to a 6-15 record last winter, including Aaliyah Zachery, who started as a seventh-grader but already seems to have taken her game to a higher level.
While leading the Cobras to a 60-19 victory over Homer Friday night in the opening round of the Trojans’ own tournament, Zachery outscored the Trojans by herself and finished with a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds, adding a pair of steals.
Sicily Shaffer, who is just a freshman, nearly had her own double-double, getting 14 points and nine rebounds, while Gia Kinsey picked up 11 points and eight rebounds. Kierra Baxter and Olivia Bitz had six points apiece.
A day later, the final against Moravia turned quite tense when Grimes, up 41-29 through three quarters, saw that entire margin melt away and the game go into overtime.
Still, the Cobras were able to prevail 54-52 by outscoring Moravia 7-5 in that extra period. With Zachery contained, Kinsey and Baxter led the way, combining to hit six 3-pointers as Kinsey finished with 18 points and Baxter added 17 points.
Christian Brothers Academy, who was 12-10 a season ago, also has some star power on hand in the form of Chianna Williams, who dazzled everyone last Friday in the Brothers’ 62-26 victory over Nottingham.
Against a Bulldogs side just returning to top competition after not having a varsity team in 2022-23, Williams helped her side build a 48-16 lead through three quarters by pouring in 32 points.
And Williams was far from alone. Carmella Fairbanks got most of her 11 points from a trio of 3-pointers as Cara Macaluso was close behind, finishing with 10 points.
Also opening last Thursday night, East Syracuse Minoa took a narrow 47-45 defeat to its Spartan namesakes from New Hartford, who moved to 3-0 overall.
Having won at Baldwinsville’s Bill Middleton Tournament on Thanksgiving weekend, New Hartford played a confident first half and built a 31-18 margin led by Kamryn Richards, who would get 19 points, and Danielle Lucas, who had 16 points.
All through the second half, ESM battled back, its comeback attempt led entirely by Aniyah Jones, who set a new career mark with 29 points, only to get little help as no other Spartan player had more than Sonya Benhassen’s six points.
