CENTRAL NEW YORK – Even with the success it had attained during the first half of the regular season, the Christian Brothers Academy girls basketball team understood that major tests still were in front of them.
This included a 48-hour stretch late last week where the Brothers would have to face “Holy War” rival Bishop Ludden and then travel up north to face defending Class A sectional champion Indian River.
CBA would stay right with Ludden throughout a close first half, only trailing 33-29 at the break, but a 25-16 third-quarter surge by the Gaelic Knights proved decisive as it went on to beat the Brothers 70-59.
Chianna Williams still managed 29 points, hitting on five 3-pointers, while Liana Thoma had 13 points and Lilah Kirch nine points. Ludden was led by Bridget Dunham’s 28 points and nine rebounds as Ava Carpenter had 17 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals.
On Saturday against Indian River (no. 6 in the state Class A rankings), CBA lost, 48-32, held without a field goal in the second quarter and unable to produce much of the game as IR built a 46-15 lead through three quarters.
Before all this, Jamesville-DeWitt had its own opportunity at a signature victory against Class AAA no. 20-ranked Baldwinsville, but could not quite pull it off, falling 42-36 to the Bees.
There was little wrong with the Red Rams’ defense in that it frustrated B’ville for long stretches of the game, only allowing 13 combined points in the second and third quarters.
This, along with a solid start, had J-D in front 36-33 going to the fourth quarter, but B’ville increased its pressure, forced the Rams into mistakes and sprinted out in front to stay, led by 15 points from Natalie Hollingshead and 10 points from Madison Polky.
On the Rams’ side, Ava Sandroni had 12 points. Sadie Withers was close behind, earning 10 points, while Merris Kessler finished with eight points.
J-D then lost 46-40 to Auburn on Friday night, held to four points in the second quarter as an early lead vanished and the Maroons built a 33-26 advantage through three quarters
Unable to rally, the Rams did not have a player score in double figures, though Lindsay Parker got close with nine points and Sandroni added eight points. By contrast, Auburn’s Peyton Maneri had 35 points, hitting on 14 successful free throws.
Two other struggling local sides got big wins of their own last Wednesday night, including Fayetteville-Manlius, who despite its 2-10 mark rose up and, with a second-half comeback, knocked off West Geneseee 52-49.
Steady early play had the Wildcats in front 31-23 going into halftime, but in the third quarter the Hornets outscored WG 17-10 to make up most of the ground, then continued to play well the rest of the way.
To overcome a game-high 20 points from the Wildcats’ Bella Quinones, F-M had to be balanced, and it was. Mia Knuth and Lydia Land-Steves both got 14 points, with Taylor Novack getting most of her 11 points from a pair of 3-pointers. Morgan Goodman earned eight points and Lydia Davidson added seven points.
East Syracuse Minoa prevailed that same night against Oswego, the Spartans topping the Buccaneers 52-48 in a game where it built a 26-21 lead by halftime, only to surrender it during the third quarter.
Yet it was ESM with the final surge, erasing Oswego’s 39-35 advantage with a defense that held the Bucs to five points the rest of the way while Aniyah Jones worked her total to 22 points and got help from Bella Kroll (eight points), Angelina Constentino (seven points) and Kayli Montroy (six points). Maria Sweet led Oswego with 18 points.
