CENTRAL NEW YORK – Among the area’s high school girls basketball teams, Christian Brothers Academy and Bishop Grimes were on the best footing after impressive wins in their opening week.
Now the trick was to carry it over, and the Brothers at first did so in last Tuesday’s game against Oswego, jumping out early and not letting up in a 60-36 victory over the Buccaneers.
Defense did the work first, CBA holding Oswego to just five points in the first quarter. Then the offense hit a serious stride, outscoring the Bucs 19-11 in a fast-paced second period and continuing to pull further away.
For the second game in a row, Chianna Williams hit the 30-point mark, this time earning exactly 30 points, which included four 3-pointers. Cara Macaluso and Liana Thomas got eight points apiece, with Carmella Fairbanks adding six points.
When CBA on Friday went for three wins in a row against Marcellus, it saw its offense dry up in a 34-28 loss to the Mustangs.
An early 10-5 lead vanished when the Brothers got just two points in the second quarter. Despite strong defense, CBA never got on track on the other end, Williams held to 10 points as Cece Powell (11 points) paced Marcellus.
Bishop Grimes would travel to Phoenix last Friday and find itself done in by slow starts to each half during a 52-43 defeat to the Firebirds.
Phoenix jumped out in front 14-8, and after the Cobras made up some ground, took over in the third quarter with a 14-6 push led by Miley Esposito, who had 18 points, and Sara Ruetsch, who got 15 points.
No one on Grimes could match that production, though Aaliyah Zachery came close, the eighth-grader picking up 17 points as Sicily Shaffer stepped up with 12 points and Kierra Baxter had 11 points.
Jamesville-DeWitt also started the week with a win and then had a setback, the good part coming last Tuesday when it shut down Chittenango in a 50-25 victory.
Outscoring the Bears 35-7 over the course of the second and third quarters, the Red Rams were led by Ava Sandroni getting 23 points, while Merris Kessler had eight points.
Then J-D visited West Genesee on Friday and could not replicate that effort, falling to the Wildcats 56-44 as it could not recover from a second quarter where it was held to just four points.
Battling back in the late going, the Rams saw Sandroni gain 15 points, with help from Kessler (nine points) and Lindsay Parker (10 points), but they could not equal the 21 points from WG’s Bella Quinones, who led all scorers.
Fayetteville-Manlius met up with Baldwinsville last Tuesday night and took a while to get going, held under 10 points in each of the first two quarters.
Despite its attempts to recover, the Hornets lost, 49-39, to the Bees, who got 18 points from Madison Polky and 11 points from Olivia Davis. To lead F-M, Lydia Land-Steves earned 13 points, just ahead of Mia Knuth, who had 12 points.
F-M then lost 54-46 in overtime to Fairport (Section V) on Saturday afternoon, this despite rallying from a 19-16 halftime deficit to get to the extra period. Lydia Davidson had 13 points and five rebounds, with Knuth notching 14 rebounds to go with her seven points and Piper Gentry earning 10 points and nine rebounds.
East Syracuse Minoa had to welcome powerhouse Cicero-North Syracuse and found it difficult to contain all the elements in the Northstars’ attack as it took a 65-31 defeat.
Already with a 15-8 advantage, all that the Northstars did in the second and third quarters was outscore the Spartans 36-9, all while spreading its production around.
Kat McRobbie-Taru led C-NS with 16 points, but Leah Benedict and Olivia Cook were close behind, each netting 11 points. ESM’s Aniyah Jones had 14 points and Sonya Benhassen added eight points, but the rest of the roster managed just three field goals.
