In order for the Fayetteville-Manlius boys basketball team to get a season-defining win at Henninger Thursday night, it had to several things well, from hitting outside shots to seeing Jake Wittig get the better of his point guard duel with Romero Collier.
And those things happened – until the fourth quarter.
At the most inopportune time, the Hornets’ best-laid plans got thwarted by a tenacious Henninger defense who silenced F-M and produced just enough on the other end to prevail by a 63-53 margin.
They had first played Dec. 19 in the “Hornets Nest”, Henninger pulling away late and topping F-M 59-43, but everyone on both sides figured the rematch would be closer, given the way the Hornets had improved in the five weeks since, going 8-2 in that stretch.
It would go back and forth most of the way. Collier drew two quick fouls in the first quarter, forcing Henninger to depend on other players, especially Terrence Walker, who scored 11 of his 17 points in the opening half.
F-M countered with penetration from Wittig that led to open shots on the outside. And the Hornets made lots of them, hitting on six 3-pointers before the break. When Wittig hit a spinning jumper right at the horn, the Hornets took a 29-27 lead to halftime.
Two more 3-pointers, from Nick Jawaan Crouch and Nick Quilty-Koval, gave F-M its largest lead at 35-29 early in the third period, but Henninger quickly erased that deficit with a 13-4 run, and it would be in front, 46-43, going to the final period.
For a moment, it looked like F-M was ready for its own comeback when Quilty-Koval hit the team’s 10th 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter. But after Wittig’s go-ahead basket with 6:53 left, the Hornets, up 48-46, would not score another field goal for nearly six minutes.
That was ample time for Henninger to make the game’s decisive push. Switching its defense, it cut off the perimeter shots the Hornets were getting with regularity earlier in the game, forcing steals and converting them on the other end.
All of it was part of a closing 17-5 run, anchored by Keisean Scott, who had six of his 16 points in the final period as Walker and Shaitique Blatche (14 points, six rebounds) made up for the struggles of Collier, who still scored all seven of his points in the second half and added seven assists.
Wittig put together 18 points and 12 assists, with Quilty-Koval adding 15 points, all from five 3-pointers, and adding five rebounds. Crouch had eight points as Cormac Bettinger finished with seven points, six rebounds and four blocks.
One thing that was certain was that F-M would not look ahead to Henninger – not when it had Auburn, who stunned the Hornets 73-71 three weeks earlier, visiting last Tuesday night.
Sure enough, the Hornets exacted fearful revenge on the Maroons, winning 81-49. Perhaps also remembering the terrible first half it played Jan. 23 against Cicero-North Syracuse (where it scored 15 in the first half before piling up 55 in the second half to rally and win), F-M flattened Auburn during a 45-19 jaunt through those opening two periods.
The Maroons did not recover, and Wittig had much to do with it. Having scored 33 points in that first meeting with Auburn, Wittig instead went the triple-double route this time, gathering up 12 assists and 10 steals to go with his 19 points.
Quilty-Koval, whose trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter set the tone for the rest of the night, finished with his own double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds. Crouch scored 10 points, while Bettinger, Jeff Martin and Jimmy Barns had seven points apiece. Kevin DiCola led Auburn with 11 points as Hakeem Ali and Jonathan Bell got 10 points apiece.
F-M still found itself with a 10-5 record following the loss to Henninger, knowing it would make a trip to face another city foe, Corcoran, next Tuesday before returning home next Friday to face Liverpool.
