Two quarters remained in Sunday’s boys basketball Section III Class B final at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena, and Chittenango could sense a stunning piece of history within its grasp.
The Bears, a heavy underdog against top seed and state no. 2-ranked Westhill, only trailed by three points. Put together 16 more minutes of strong play against the Warriors, and there was a chance that the program’s 40-year sectional title drought could end.
But Westhill cared little for history or sentimentality. Instead, led by Sean Dadey, it put together a clinical third-quarter outburst that crushed the Bears’ title dreams, leading to a 67-41 defeat and the end of a marvelous 20-3 season on Chittenango’s part.
They had only met once in the regular season, on Jan. 3, and Westhill controlled matters to defeat the then-undefeated Bears 63-43. Two months later, with far higher stakes, Chittenango took aim again.
At least at the outset, the Bears caught the Warriors at far from its best form on offense, yet could not take full advantage with a series of missed shots at close range combined with difficulty dealing with Westhill’s man-to-man pressure.
Even with that, and even with Zach Falkenburg neutralized in a manner that he wasn’t when he scored 39 points in the Feb. 25 sectional semifinal win over Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, Chittenango chipped away at a 19-10 second-quarter deficit thanks to a modest 9-2 run.
By the time they reached the break, the Warriors were still in front, but only by a 26-23 margin. Now the question was whether Chittenango could piece together another sustained run and really make it nervous for Westhill.
Instead, it got run over.
Increasing its pressure, the Warriors forced the Bears into a series of mistakes throughout the third period. Meanwhile, Westhill turned those mistakes into consistent production on the other end, and didn’t let up until it had outscored Chittenango 23-4 in those eight minutes.
Unable to recover, the Bears still saw Falkenburg finish with 17 points. Dylan Voutsinas had eight points, with Matt Lanphear (seven points) and Hunter Hendrix (six points) close behind. Dadey, named tournament MVP, paced Westhill with 26 points as Zechariah Brown added 11 points and Antonio Scrimale, who took turns with Owen Matukas guarding Falkenburg, got nine points.
Of the Bears’ starting five, only Hendrix graduates. Falkenburg, Voutsinas, Lanphear and Sam Hill all could return in 2017-18, giving Chittenango reason to think it can make another push to claim a sectional title not seen in Bear Country since 1977.
