With a good chance that they could see each other again in a month’s time, the West Genesee girls basketball team put its 12-3 mark on the line last Tuesday night against 12-2 Fayetteville-Manlius.
And the Wildcats played on fairly even terms most of the night – until the fourth quarter, that is, when the state Class AA no. 17-ranked Hornets took control and pulled out a 49-41 decision.
Given how well both teams play on defense, it did not figure to be a high-scoring battle, but WG made the first push, inching into a 14-11 lead by the end of the opening period.
For the rest of the game, though, the Wildcats struggled for the same kind of offensive consistency as F-M chipped away. Still, no one could gain any clear advantage before the final period, when the Hornets, led by Kiley Shoemaker (14 points) and Lauren Getman (13 points), outscored WG 15-8 and got clear.
Melissa Fumano carried the Wildcats’ attack, her 21 points accounting for more than half her team’s output. Marissa Hudgins, with eight points, was the only other WG player to get more than two field goals.
WG recovered on Friday night to beat Utica Proctor, but even that didn’t prove easy as the Wildcats scraped out a 53-51 decision over the Raiders.
A rough second quarter erased all of WG’s early lead. Down 23-21 at halftime, the Wildcats went back in front in the third quarter and survived a tense exchange in the stretch.
Fumano, with 19 points, led both sides on the offensive end. Kara Datellas had 11 points, while Vicki Graveline and Marissa Hudgins managed eight points apiece.
While all this was happening, the West Genesee boys basketball team was glad that a Class AA playoff berth was secure, given what happened to them away in two tough road games.
WG fell, 79-66, to Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night. No team had won at the “Hornets’ Nest” all season, and the Wildcats got an up-close glimpse at the young, vastly talented F-M lineup that includes two sophomores and a freshman in the starting five.
One of those sophomores, John Schurman, poured in 27 points, leading F-M to a 61-38 lead through three periods. No one on WG could match that output, though Phil Allen led his side with 19 points and Scott Sidnam added 13 points. Matt Naton, Mike Henry and Will Watts had seven points apiece.
As a follow-up, WG had to visit, on Friday, a Utica Proctor side that also had a perfect home mark this winter. Here, the Wildcats outplayed the Raiders for long portions of the game, but paid for a poor start with a 74-66.
Proctor bolted to a 21-10 lead by the end of the first quarter. That forced WG into a catch-up mode, and though it never allowed the Raiders to put the game out of reach, it also was unable to get the sustained run it needed to make things more interesting.
Trevor Smith led WG with 17 points. Henry had 10 points, with Allen, Watts (nine points each), Adam Wierbinski (eight points) and Scott Sidnam (seven points) close behind. WG finishes the regular season this Friday, hosting Central Square, while the girls visit the Red Hawks.
