Make that three consecutive Section III Class AA championships for the West Genesee girls basketball team – and this was the most emphatic one of all.
Faces both familiar and fresh all helped the Wildcats defeat Cicero-North Syracuse 62-48 in Friday night’s sectional final at the Carrier Dome, a game where a dominant second quarter put WG in control to stay.
“This one means the most,” said senior Mackenzie Smith, the sectional tournament MVP who poured in 23 points. “Our girls did not want to lose.”
“The kids played dynamite tonight,” said head coach Stafford Spreter, “We were tight early, but then we found some energy and hit some shots, which helped.”
In fact, the Wildcats converted on 11 3-pointers, five of them from senior Aleysha Castanon, which accounted for all of her 15 points and provided a boost when C-NS tried to rally in the second half.
Spreter said that this title felt different because, unlike 2017 and 2018, WG was a favorite from the outset, targeted by every local opponent, but stepping up and playing special basketball when the stakes got higher.
Never were the Wildcats better than in that 20-2 march through the second quarter that would ultimately contrast this contest to last year’s sectional final that WG won and the two close regular-season battles that these sides split.
They were tied, 15-15, through one period. Though Mackenzie Smith had a hot had at the outset, earning 10 of her team’s first 12 points, C-NS led most of the quarter, helped by eight points from Alexandra Miller.
Yet even here, the seeds for a victory were planted as, burned plenty by Northstars forward Jessica Cook in previous encounters, the Wildcats double-teamed her from the outset, with Kaitlyn Walker getting plenty of help from various teammates any time Cook had the ball in the paint.
This plan really took hold in that decisive second quarter. Over and over, Cook was frustrated as WG’s defenders took away her space and forced her teammates to take shots that veered off target.
Meanwhile, on the other end, a 13-0 run included 3-pointers from both Smith sisters along with Meredith James, And though Madison Smith was kept quiet most of the period, her catch-and-shoot jumper at the horn stretched the Wildcats’ margin to 35-17 going to the break.
Somehow, C-NS absorbed all this and, early in the third quarter, when on an 11-2 run to whittle the margin to single digits, 37-28, with a lot of time to play.
Then Castanon, who had struggled much of the season with her outside shooting, delivered back-to-back 3-pointers to restore the margin to 43-28, and then connected again beyond the arc before the period ended.
The Northstars never threatened again and WG could both celebrate a sectional three-peat and look ahead to another state tournament appearance.
The Wildcats take on Section II champion Shenendehowa next Saturday at SRC Arena with a berth in the March 16-17 state final four in Troy on the line, looking to avenge a 62-29 defeat to the Plainsmen late in December. WG is certain that the rematch with Shen will be different.
“We can only get better from here,” said Mackenzie Smith.
