CENTRAL NEW YORK – With all it had gone through in the regular season, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball team still had a perfect run through the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.
As a result, the Northstars hold the top seed as it looks to defend the Section III Class AA championship it won in 2020, the last time sectional honors were handed out.
In order to clinch both the league title and the top seed, C-NS first had to win Monday at Baldwinsville, which it did with a strong, confident finishing stretch that put away the Bees 55-44.
Everything indicated that this would be a close one. Their first meeting, on Jan. 7, saw the Bees have two shots to win it in the closing seconds but not convert in a 52-51 defeat.
More than a month later, B’ville was bent on getting even, and responded well when C-NS jumped out in front early. An active second quarter saw the Bees outscore the Northstars 19-13 to move within two, 29-27, at the break.
They stayed on close terms through the third period, neither side able to put together a sustained run, but in the final quarter C-NS kept making key stops, limiting B’ville to just seven points.
And while Sydney Huhtala led all scorers with 20 points, no other Bees player hit double figures, with Ola Bednarczyk getting nine points, Carlie Young six points and Kyrah Wilbur five points.
Contrasting this, the Northstars spread it around, seeing Alexa Kulakowski, Alita Carey-Santangelo and Kathleen Taru each pick up 15 points.
A night later, at South Jefferson, C-NS did not have a letdown, prevailing 68-55 over the reigning sectional Class B champion Spartans.
Even as Jackie Piddock, with 28 points, built upon her newly-held record as Section III’s all-time leading scorer in girls basketball (breaking the mark of 2,466 that Emily Durr set at Utica-Notre Dame), C-NS used a 25-14 third-quarter push to get away from south Jefferson.
For the night, Kulakowski put in 21 points, hitting four 3-pointers. Carey-Santangelo gained 15 points, with Sydney Nesci adding 12 points and Brayden Schultz earning nine points.
Meanwhile, Liverpool rebounded from a Feb. 11 defeat to B’ville with wins on back-to-back days to finish its regular season at 13-7.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Warriors held off Section IV’s Maine-Endwell 61-54, scoring well in the third quarter to overcome at 22-20 halftime deficit.
Naveah Wingate again had a fine showing, her 23 points supported by 12 points from Gianna Washington and 11 points from Jakeira Stackhouse. Julia Wike added six points.
Then, at Fayetteville-Manlius a night later, Liverpool prevailed 51-38 in a game where it trailed early and was tied, 22-22, at halftime before it went on a decisive 17-6 push through the third quarter.
The Hornets did hold Wingate to nine points, but Stackhouse had 13 points and Wike stepped up with 10 points as freshman A’briyah Cunningham matched Wingate and earned nine points. F-M’s Ava Angello still led all scorers with 15 points as Evie Kawa got 12 points.
If Liverpool, the no. 4 seed in the sectional Class AA bracket, beats no. 5 seed Utica Proctor in next Tuesday’s quarterfinal, it is lined up to face C-NS in a possible semifinal Feb. 27 at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall.
