Another blast of winter weather kept Baldiwnsville boys basketball sophomore sensation J.J.Starling from reaching a milestone in front of the home crowd.
The Bees’ game against Fayetteville-Manlius, originally set for Dec. 17, was postponed twice in as many days, and now won’t get made up until Feb. 13, which will make it B’ville’s regular-season finale.
That left Starling at 963 career points. Had the F-M game taken place, it was likely that Starling would have only needed a few baskets in last Friday’s home game against Nottingham to get to 1,000 for his career.
As such, given his capabilities, Starling still had an outside chance to get those 37 points, and did all he could as the Bees, improving to 5-2 on the season, won 71-58 over the Bulldogs.
A strong first half on both ends left B’ville in front 35-22, and it maintained that margin the rest of the way, leaving the only suspense as to whether Starling would reach 1,000.
It almost happened, as Starling’s 31 points left him six points short. He got enough support, too, as Bo Nicholson and Chase Trombley each had 11 points and Dan Fabrizio got eight points.
At 994 career points, Starling’s next game is set for Jan. 3 – against none other than reigning state Class AA champion West Genesee, which tips off at 1:30.
And this will provide one of the best one-on-one match-ups of the entire season, Starling challenged by Wildcats senior Will Amica, who just poured in a career-high 36 points in a win over Corcoran on Dec. 20.
