CENTRAL NEW YORK – Even with a Section III Class B title and many standout individual efforts, Chittenango boys basketball junior Ryan Moesch might never enjoy a night compared to what he did Friday at Auburn.
In the opening round of the Maroons’ More Than A Game Tournament, Moesch achieved two different milestones while carrying the Bears to an 82-65 victory – and did so with special company on hand.
Entering the game with 980 career points, Moesch would gain the 20 points he needed to reach 1,000, doing so with older brother Alex (now at Hobart College) on hand to witness it.
But Moesch did much more. Having helped Chittenango build a 43-29 halftime lead, he made sure all of Auburn’s comeback attempts get thwarted with a stunning shooting performance.
Between eight field goals, seven 3-pointers and 11 successful free throws, Moesch achieved 48 points overall, a new career mark and one of the best single-game totals in program history, negating a 28-point effort by the Maroons’ Johntae Smith.
After Moesch’s signature performance against Auburn, he nearly matched it a day later and helped Chittenango win the tournament, defeating Section II’s Ballston Spa by a 74-63 margin.
Another fast start for the Bears involved grabbing a 28-11 edge before Ballston Spa managed to regroup and close the gap to 37-28 by halftime.
Every time it got tense, though, Moesch did something. Hitting on 13 field goals, three of them 3-pointers, plus 11 free throws amounted to 40 points, and he got more help this time as Jacob Bell earned 14 points and Jacob Cheek earned 12 points.
Before all this, Moesch and the Bears offered an emphatic response to its season-opening loss to Bishop Ludden in the Dec. 2 Peppino’s Invitational, going to Cortland last Tuesday and smashing the Purple Tigers 69-30.
During a first-half offensive eruption, the Bears pushed the tempo and Cortland had no answer for it, with a 25-8 start and a 26-2 sprint through the second quarter that created a 51-10 halftime margin.
Already, the Bears had more than enough, and Moesch would ultimately outscore the entire Purple Tigers roster, finishing with 35 points. Otherwise, things were spread out between 10 other players who earned a field goal, none netting more than Jack Lamphere’s total of nine points.
A victory in the Dec. 1-2 Sherburne-Earlville Tournament had given Cazenovia a sense of belief that its recent struggles might be in the past.
Yet those struggles returned last week, starting on Tuesday where the Lakers met Solvay in its home opener at Buckley Gym and, despite solid production, lost 77-68 to the Bearcats.
Hot early shooting had Cazenovia up 22-16 through one period. Solvay erased it, though, moving out in front 41-35 by halftime and building the margin to 63-51 before the third quarter was done.
Ben Bianco and Tanner Lawson did all they could, Bianco pouring in 30 points and Lawson getting 22 points as Alex Kuper got nine points. The Bearcats held on led by Jeff Sharpe’s 26 points, Luis Mojica’s 19 points and A.J. Trendell’s 11 points.
Then, in Saturday’s Syracuse City Invitational, Cazenovia fell to PSLA-Fowler 66-45, the Falcons building a 37-20 edge by halftime as Ponce Williams and Jayderr White had 20 points apiece.
Bianco got 16 points and Edmond Richardson finished with 15 points to pace the Lakers, who fell to 2-2.
