Nearly four weeks had passed since the Baldwinsville girls basketball team suffered its lone defeat of the season to Cicero-North Syracuse.
Neither side had lost since, so the stakes of last Thursday’s rematch at Baker High School were quite big, ranging from the SCAC Metro division regular-season title to a possible top seed in the Section III Class AA playoffs.
It proved tense, physical and draining, but when all was done the Bees had toppled the Northstars 48-40, earning a share of the league title (both teams finishing 13-1) and 19-1 overall.
C-NS held the no. 10 state AA rankings, two spots ahead of the Bees in the no. 12 spot. Yet the Northstars were short-handed, without junior forward Julia Rowe in the lineup.
This put far more pressure on Jessica Cook, and the Bees were glad to provide it, offering double and triple teams during the first quarter and forcing her to the bench with two fouls.
Meanwhile, B’ville’s offense struggled, too, shut out in the game’s first five-plus minutes and struggling for baskets throughout the half, even as it went to the break holding a 14-11 lead.
Then, said senior captain Katie Pascale, “in the second half we started to make some shots.”
Plenty of shots fell, helped by B’ville’s defensive pressure that forced a rash of C-NS turnovers, and late in the third quarter the Bees held a 33-20 advantage.
But it almost went away as, helped by a 10-0 run, C-NS pulled within one, 35-34, with more than six minutes to play, finally getting some outside shots to go with Cook’s production as she finished with 21 points.
Ultimately, it was Ola Bednarczyk sinking a pair of crucial 3-pointers to thwart the Northstars’ comeback, the last of them with 2:18 to play that made it 43-36. C-NS never got closer than four points again.
Prior to that, Bednarczyk only had one field goal all night as Pascale earned 13 of her 17 points in the second half. Hannah Mimas, Sydney Huhtala and Kyrah Wilbur had six points apiece.
While C-NS survived a tense battle with West Genesee last Tuesday thanks to Cook’s 36 points, B’ville had no stress at all in its game against Corcoran that same night.
The Bees blasted the Cougars 86-47, steadily accumulating a 63-29 margin through the first three quarters and seeing 10 different players get on the scoreboard by game’s end.
Mimas led the way, earning 21 points. Pascale got 15 points, with Bednarczyk earning 11 points. Jordan Roy got eight points as Huhtala and Wilbur had six points apiece.
