While Cicero-North Syracuse students may have clad themselves in jerseys of their favorite sports teams and athletes for Friday night’s boys basketball home opener against Christian Brothers Academy, in the end it was the home team in white, blue and green that got all the glory.
Those students flooded onto the floor as the final horn sounded, celebrating a 70-65 victory by the Northstars over the Brothers that, at least for a moment, eased the pain everyone at C-NS had felt after its undefeated football team was denied its first-ever Section III Class AA title by CBA a month ago.
But even though several basketball players on both sides were in pads and helmets at the Carrier Dome, for Northstars head coach John Haas the larger concern was over how his team would perform following a two-week break.
C-NS had last played Dec. 2, falling to Rome Free Academy 95-87 in double overtime. and while some may have seen the long wait to get back on the court for game action as a nuisance, Haas said it turned out otherwise.
“We had time to break down some things,” said Haas. “So it was nice to have that time off.”
The return to action was quite festive. Students showed up in jerseys of more than 60 professional, college and high school teams, with plenty of Syracuse University and C-NS uniforms on display and even fictional jerseys seen in movies like Space Jam and Semi-Pro worn, too.
And while no one had an Arizona Diamondbacks jersey, C-NS graduate and Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin returned to his alma mater to watch the game. Corbin, who also played basketball for the Northstars, still holds the single-game record for 3-pointers in a game – eight, set a decade ago during the 2006-07 season.
CBA had played twice during that stretch, beating Nottingham and Syracuse Academy of Science, but it couldn’t take advantage of that recent success during a first quarter where neither side led by more than two points.
And when the Brothers went on a 10-1 run late in the second period, the Northstars countered with a 12-0 spurt that stretched to the midway point of the third quarter and took a lead that it would not relinquish.
The key, said Haas, was getting the ball inside to the paint and drawing contact. This got CBA’s forwards, including Dan Damico and Jack Carpenter, into foul trouble, which would eventually prove important.
All through the second half, any time the Brothers threatened to catch up, C-NS answered with a timely push, including an 8-0 run late in the final period where CBA was kept off the board for more than two minutes.
Trailing 58-48, the Brothers didn’t make it easy for the Northstars to get to the wire, twice drawing within four points. But Alexander Gray’s three-point play on a driving layup with 46 seconds left, and four successful free throws from Omar Mere, allowed C-NS to hang on.
Leading a well-balanced attack, Jaysaun Gunn produced 17 points, with Mere and Chris Stowell each getting 15 points and Gray adding 12 points. Paul Aversa paced the Brothers with 17 points as Damico, despite his foul trouble, got 12 points and Kevin Underwood added 10 points.
The Northstars will enter the fray in the CNY Counties League next Tuesday night when it hosts Henninger, followed by a trip to West Genesee next Friday and, on Dec. 29-30, a possible return engagement with CBA during the Brothers’ annual Bottar-Leone Holiday Classic, though C-NS will face Westhill in that tournament’s opening round.
For the moment, C-NS, at 2-1, has quite the edge on Liverpool, who was still in search of its first win of the season following a pair of close defeats in last weekend’s Bishop Kearney Tournament in Rochester.
In Saturday’s opening round, the Warriors met University Prep, a Rochester-area charter school, and lost, 70-62, which was more frustrating because Liverpool, thanks to a second-quarter surge, led 31-19 at halftime, only to have the Griffins outscore them 50-31 the rest of the way, taking the lead in the fourth quarter.
Charles Pride put up 25 points, including three 3-pointers, while Naz Johnson finished with 20 points. No other Liverpool player hit double figures, though, as Devan Mederios got closest to that mark with seven points.
Then, in Sunday afternoon’s consolation game against host Bishop Kearney, the Warriors dropped a 65-63 decision to the Kings despite rallying from a 31-26 halftime deficit to tie it by the end of third quarter.
Kearney outscored Liverpool 18-16 in the final period, hanging on to win and overcoming a big performance by Pride, who poured in 32 points. Johnson got held to four points, though, and no one else helped Pride that much as Mederios got eight points and Jonah Harder added seven points.
Liverpool would attempt again to get into the win column Tuesday night as it met 2-0 Baldwinsville in its home opener before welcoming Nottingham on Friday night.
