No single stretch of the regular season meant more to the West Genesee boys basketball team than the pair of games it would host in the last days of January.

With Section III Class AA playoff seedings, and possibly a league title, on the line, the Wildcats would sweep one key challenger and gain some payback against the other.

First was last Tuesday’s visit from Corcoran. The Wildcats and Cougars had gone through some classic battles the previous two years, and it took Will Amica scoring 36 points to have WG win 69-61 when they met in December.

Here, Amica could not match those totals – but he did not have to as the Wildcats did just enough to hold off Corcoran 67-66 for its eighth win in a row.

All through the first half, WG maintained control, answering whenever the Cougars threatened to catch up and eventually building a 35-27 margin to take to the break.

Every bit of it was needed, since Corcoran chipped away throughout the second half, led again by De’Jour Reaves, who topped all individuals with 27 points as Arthur Williams added 13 points.

Part of the reason the Wildcats held on was that Amica did not have to take over, though he still paced his team with 22 points.

Adam Dudzinski finished with 15 points, while John Benson had 10 points. Kam Jones, who didn’t play in that December meeting, got seven points as Sam Gallager had nine points.

And this led to Friday’s visit from Baldwinsville, The Bees were 10-1 and atop the SCAC Metro division standings, in while the Wildcats were 8-2 in league play.

More importantly, B’ville was the last team to defeat WG on Jan. 3, a memorable 57-52 game where sophomore J.J. Starling burned the Wildcats for 16 fourth-quarter points to rally his team to victory.

An overflow crowd was on hand for Senior Night and WG sent most of them home happy, battling to a 49-45 victory that had plenty of momentum shifts and tension all the way to the final seconds.

Somehow, the Wildcats endured going more than five minutes without a point in the first half to lead 19-18 at the break, saved by a defense that found a way to keep Starling quiet.

Jones and Anthony Dattellas took turns face-guarding Starling, which prevented him from driving to the basket and forced him to settle for long-range shots, most of which fell off target in the early going.

Amica, sidelined by two early fouls, broke out by scoring 10 straight points in the third quarter as WG built a 38-28 advantage. But then Starling ended his drought with four straight 3-pointers in a 12-0 run to put the Bees in front.

WG absorbed all this and, over the game’s last four minutes, held the Bees without a field goal, getting back-to-back baskets from Gallager and Dudzinski to gain a 47-43 edge.

Free throws by Chase Trombley cut the margin to two and, after Amica missed a free throw, the Bees had the ball in the final seconds with a chance to tie or win it.

But Starling missed a driving lay-up, Dudzinski got the rebound and was fouled with 2.2 seconds left. Dudzinski hit both free throws to clinch it, giving him 15 points for the night.

Each of WG’s three remaining regular-season games are on the road as the 14-3 Wildcats travel to Henninger and Fayetteville-Manlius this week and to Cicero-North Syracuse on Feb. 11.