For all that had gone wrong late in the regular season, the Baldwinsville girls basketball team had the perfect opportunity to fix all of it in the course of two post-season rounds.
Prior to the Bees’ appearance in the Section III Class AA playoffs, it had lost six of seven games. This had caused B’ville to tumble to a no. 6 seed, which meant a road game at no. 3 seed Central Square in Tuesday night’s sectional quarterfinal.
Having rested for a week, and remembering that it had fallen in this same round to Utica Proctor a year ago, the Bees jumped all over the Redhawks and prevailed, 55-43, in a game far more lopsided than even the score would indicate.
Though Central Square had gone 14-6 in the regular season, it had done so mostly against Class A foes, and not the gauntlet of Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division sides the Bees had faced.
B’ville wasted little time applying what it had learned against the Redhawks, playing superb defense for most of the night and holding the hosts under 10 points in each of the first three quarters.
Up 17-8 through one period, the Bees kept adding to that margin, using a 16-6 push through the third quarter to make it 43-21, far too much for Central Square to overcome.
Katie Pascale, with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists, anchored a well-balanced B’ville attack. Claire McAllister had 10 points and seven rebounds, with Carolyn Brussel adding nine points and seven rebounds, plus three assists.
Helping them out, Meaghan Wilson grabbed 10 rebounds to go with her seven points as Jenna Costello got eight points and six rebounds.
Most of Central Square’s production came from Julia Mann, who had 19 points, and Bre Ransom, who had 17 points, but B’ville held the rest of the Redhawks roster to just two field goals, both by Lauren Bell.
This leads to Sunday night’s sectional semifinal at SRC Arena, where B’ville will attempt to upend no. 2 seed and defending champion West Genesee, whom it has lost to twice in the previous month. Game time is 6:45 after the first semifinal between top seed Cicero-North Syracuse and no. 5 seed Liverpool.
