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Cal-Mum clinches LCAA D2 title; Amorese reaches career milestone

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Cal-Mum girls’ basketball celebrates with teammate Ava Amorese (5) on the night of her reaching the career 1,000-point mark. (Photo: Paul Gotham)

By PAUL GOTHAM

CALEDONIA, N.Y. — Ending a near-decade long league title drought and reaching a personal milestone all in one night left Caledonia-Mumford’s Ava Amorese a little emotional.

“It’s really overwhelming, I’m not going to lie,” the senior guard said. “I haven’t processed it yet.”

Amorese took a pass from teammate Hazell Nickerson and finished in traffic for the 1,000th point of her career. The basket was part of a 7-0 run to start the third quarter as the Raiders pulled away from a one-possession game and went on to beat York, 47-38.

With the win, Cal-Mum (15-4/7-0) clinched the Livingston County Athletic Association (LCAA) Division II title.

“It’s a relief,” Amorese said. “I had a weight on my shoulders. I was really nervous. I just wanted to have it done so I could focus on winning. I didn’t want to have to worry about everything.”

The league title was ninth in program history but first since 2016.

“It’s been a long-time goal, five years,” Amorese said.

Coming out of halftime, Cal-Mum led 15-13. Nickerson opened the scoring with a 3-pointer before setting up Amorese for her milestone bucket. Shea Drazkowski followed with a runner to give the Raiders a 22-13 lead.

York took a 47-30 decision when the two teams met in the finals of the Cal-Mum Christmas Tournament. The Raiders avenged that loss with a 51-38 win in mid-January before making it two in a row against their league rivals, Friday night.

“York has been a thorn in our sides for many years,” said Cal-Mum head coach, Mike Reed. “It makes it special to get the win tonight on our floor, playing well against them.”

It was fitting that Nickerson set up Amorese for the milestone. The pair came up together from junior varsity.

“Ava and I have been playing basketball together since third grade,” said Nickerson, a University of Rochester commit. “She’s one of my best friends. It’s been fun. We’ve played five years of varsity basketball together, so we know each other pretty well. That’s a natural thing for us.”

Amorese set a ball screen for Nickerson outside the 3-point arc and then cut into the lane. She took the pass and split a pair of defenders to finish at the rim.

“Those two, they have a synergy,” Reed said. “They know what each other is doing.”

York rallied. Tessa Rodwell hit a stepback 3-pointer to pull the Golden Knights within one at 27-26.

Cal-Mum responded with five straight. Nickerson hit a baseline jumper then Olivia Amorese scored in the lane and converted 1-of-2 free throws the next time down the floor.

Reed pointed to his team’s ability to counter York’s pressure.

“They changed up how they played us a little bit,” Reed said. “They beat us the first time. We beat them the second time. They generally don’t come out and guard us that far from the basket. We just said ‘You know, girls are going to be chasing a little bit. Get a backdoor cut, hit a teammate who’s open. If you get a look, you got to let it go.”

The win was the ninth in row for Cal-Mum (15-4) which came into the game ranked No. 30 NYSSWA Class C.

“They’re a really hard-working bunch of kids, even-keeled,” Reed said. “If things don’t go their way, they just keep playing. I’m really proud of the kids. It’s nice to see their hard work pay off especially against one of our biggest rivals.”

The Raiders, currently the No. 2 seed in Class C1, have one regular season game remaining next week before playoffs.

“They beat us on this floor for our Christmas tournament so to come back and win the division here is really great,” Nickerson said. “It’s going to give us some great momentum going into sectionals. This environment was just amazing.”

Amorese became the seventh Raider in program history to score 1,000 career points. She joined Nickerson who also has grabbed more than 1,000 rebounds in her career.

“Hazell and Ava came up as middle schoolers,” Reed said. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time.”

Nickerson finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds on the night. Amorese added 10 points. Olivia Amorese had seven points.

Rodwell, who also recently topped the 1,000-point mark, led York with 18 points and six rebounds. Izzy Laney had seven points. Bree Parsons accounted for five points, five rebounds and five steals.

York (14-5) is ranked No. 11 NYSSWA Class C. The Golden Knights, No. 3 Class C2, host Le Roy for a 7:00 start time next Tuesday to close the regular season.

Cal-Mum travels to Avon for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off on Tuesday.

YORK (14-5)
Tessa Rodwell 7 3-4 18, Fiona Grant 0 0-0 0, Bree Parsons 1 3-5 5, Izzy Laney 3 0-0 7, Gianna McClain 1 0-0 3, Rylee Cuozzo 2 0-0 5 TOTALS 14 6-9 — 38

CALEDONIA-MUMFORD (15-4)
Emma Brogan 2 0-0 4, Shea Drazkowski 2 0-0 5, Olivia Amorese 1 5-6 7, Ava Amorese 3 4-8 10, Mackenzie Poray 1 0-0 2, Hazell Nickerson 7 4-6 19 TOTALS 16 13-20 — 47

YORK 9 4 13 12 — 38
CALEDONIA-MUMFORD 8 7 17 15 — 47

3-point goals: YORK 4 (Rodwell 1, Laney 1, McClain 1, Cuozzo 1); CALEDONIA-MUMFORD 2 (Drazkowski 1, Nickerson 1).

Note: Ava Amorese scored her 1,000th career point with 6:25 remaining in the third quarter.

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