A whole combination of factors meshed together to make the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball team’s home date against archrival Liverpool a particularly painful experience.
Miffed at two poor performances the week before, desperate to keep its battle for the top seed in the Section III Class AA playoffs alive, the Northstars had its most lopsided victory in the rivalry to date, beating the Warriors 58-17 to improve to 14-2 on the season.
CNS had just survived a scare with Mexico on Jan. 27 (it took Marybeth Egan’s last-second free throws to win it) and a one-point loss to Nottingham three nights later. Neither result was acceptable for a team with championship dreams.
So when it came out to face a young Liverpool squad, it proved one-sided. CNS started on a 17-3 run, held the Warriors to just six field goals all night, and topped it off with a fourth-quarter shutout and 18 unanswered points.
Breanna Stewart matched Liverpool’s field-goal output (six) on her way to 15 points. Marybeth Egan and Kelsey Mattice each had nine points, while Brittany Denslow got eight points and Ashley Waldron added six points.
