Every time the Liverpool boys basketball team has stumbled this season, it picked up the winning beat without any delay — and last week’s revival that followed a Jan. 3 defeat to Rochester Aquinas lasted through a pair of always-difficult opponents.
And it peaked Friday night, against Fayetteville-Manlius, where the Warriors (who had knocked off West Genesee earlier in the week) started and finished strong to push its way past the Hornets 60-57.
F-M came to town with a 6-1 record and one of Central New York’s hottest players in Brian Zapisek, a junior who averaged 25.3 points per game, tops among all CNY Counties League players.
Understandably, Liverpool honed in its defense on keeping Zapisek from harming them. They succeeded, to a great degree, holding Zapisek to a modest 14 points.
Meanwhile, the Warriors diversified its own attack to take pressure off Jesse Gates, which worked as Liverpool built a 34-26 halftime lead.
Sensing that Zapisek wasn’t going to be his usual imposing self, F-M turned to Erik Mueller, who got most of his 21 points in the third quarter as the Hornets roared ahead, 46-45, to exploit the Warriors’ lone dry spell of the night.
That didn’t last long. Gates and his teammates helped Liverpool get the lead back, and it held on through every F-M charge at the end.
Sure, Gates led with 23 points, but the help was substantial, especially from Matt Harrington, who had 13 points, and Anthony Salomone, who put in 12 points. Jeff Chase was right behind them, earning 12 points.
The F-M victory landed Liverpool at 8-3 as it gazed toward Tuesday’s home match with Utica Proctor, which precedes a Friday trip to Oswego.