CENTRAL NEW YORK – The scramble for area high school girls basketball teams to make up some of the games lost to the persistent winter snows in the waning days of the regular season yielded, in one instance, a long-sought milestone.
West Genesee senior Jordyn Townes reached 1,000 career points Tuesday afternoon when the Wildcats defeated Auburn 63-53 to close its regular season with a 7-13 mark.
Townes began her high school career on Long Island for two years as an eighth and ninth-grader. Then she transferred to Bishop Ludden and excelled there in her sophomore and juniors years.
At WG this winter Townes has gone through some ups and downs but topped 20 points six times, including 29 against Fayetteville-Manlius on Jan. 11, a number she would top here.
In terms of the 1,000-point mark, Townes reached it in the first half, but hardly stopped there. Hitting on six 3-pointers and 11 field goals overall, she ultimately produced 30 points, a new career mark.
With all of Townes’ production the Wildcats built a 50-33 lead through three quarters. Bella Quinones helped out with 14 points, while Alaina Dudzinski had 11 points.
One of Townes’ former teams, Bishop Ludden, was shut down Sunday for long stretches of a 56-39 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse.
Even with the Northstars less than 24 hours removed from a big win over reigning sectional Class AAA champion Liverpool, it only surrendered six points in the opening period, seven in the second and five in the third.
Though it wasn’t a lot better on the other end, C-NS still built a 34-18 advantage which held up down the stretch, Leah Benedict finishing with 18 points mostly from four 3-pointers.
For Ludden, Sophia Chemotti led with 11 points, Ava Carpenter adding nine points, seven rebounds and six assists and Grace Olivia eight points. Between them, Abby Reynolds and Elizabeth Gaughan had just three combined field goals, though Gaughan did pick up eight rebounds.
Then when Marcellus, no. 11 in the latest state Class B rankings, had its turn against C-NS on Wednesday, even a signature performance from Cece Powell could not keep the Mustangs from a 68-47 loss as it finished the regular season 15-5.
The Northstars decided this early, bolting to a 23-5 lead by the end of the first quarter and extending the margin to 44-16 by halftime with a well-balanced attack and a whole lot of defense.
Powell kept it from getting worse by netting 34 points, but other than her and Baker (10 points), Marcellus had just one field goal, a 3-pointer by Leah Wood. Seven different Northstars had at least six points led by Benedict’s total of 21 points.
Back on Feb. 14 Westhill got to play against Cortland and, short-handed in the late going, still pulled out a 40-38 overtime victory over the Purple Tigers.
Down 38-36 in the closing seconds of regulation, Westhill saw Nora Fitzgerald’s jumper force the extra period and it held Cortland without a point in the four minutes of OT even with Kara Rosenberger sidelined by an injury. Fitzgerald and Eva Tarolli each got 10 points, Tarolli adding nine rebounds. Medeiros got nine points, five rebounds and four assists.
Rosenberger did return for Wednesday’s game against Jamesville-DeWitt but Westhill lost 48-37 to the Red Rams. Medeiros had 11 points, Rosenberger joining Fitzgerald and Aaliyah Colon getting six points apiece as Colon’s nine rebounds matched Tarolli and Fitzgerald added eight rebounds.
