After a winter full of ups and downs, the Skaneateles boys basketball team wanted to be sure that it would at least get a taste of the Section III Class B playoffs.
And the Lakers locked up that tournament berth during last Monday night’s game at Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, where it rode a red-hot start to an easy 69-46 victory over the Rebels.
Determined to end the suspense early, Skaneateles poured right through APW’s defenses in the first quarter, racing out to a 26-8 lead by the time that period was done.
From there, it was just a matter of nursing that margin, and while the Lakers’ pace slowed down a bit, it never let the Rebels get too close.
Pete Knupp, with 18 points, led a deep and well-rounded attack. Bobby Leslie finished with 16 points, while Jake Peterson earned 15 points. Eli Goodell and Colin Foehl finished with six points apiece.
After Wednesday’s game with East Syracuse-Minoa got snowed out and moved to Saturday, the Lakers turned its attention to Friday’s visit to Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central, who had just taken first place from Cazenovia in the OHSL Liberty National division by winning 52-44 at Buckley Gym earlier in the week.
The Lakers would face the Eagles without its top player, Rensey Chandler, out with an ankle injury suffered in the Cazenovia game. Despite that fact, and despite a career-best effort from Leslie, Skaneateles still lost to ITC 64-54.
Pushing the tempo from the outset, the Eagles led the Lakers 22-12 after one period, turning the rest of the game into a long chase, made more difficult by Skaneateles only having eight healthy players on its roster for this game.
Down 27-12 at one point, the Lakers gradually fought back and only trailed by five, 45-40, late in the third quarter. But just when it was about to catch up, Skaneateles missed an easy lay-up, and ITC countered with a 9-0 run to close the quarter, making it 54-40.
Skaneateles battled to the end, mainly because Leslie was red-hot. More than doubling his normal average, Leslie produced 32 points from 11 field goals, two of them 3-pointers, and eight 3-pointers. Peterson added 12 points, but the rest of the Lakers scored just three combined field goals.
Algernon Torrence led ITC with 19 points and 15 rebounds as Colin Fullterton, with 10 points and 10 rebounds, managed his own double-double.
When the game with ESM was made up on Saturday, the Lakers played on even terms most of the way, but paid for a poor start in a 60-53 loss to the Spartans.
All through the first quarter, ESM scored at will against the Skaneateles defense, grabbing a 23-14 lead by the time it was done. And it stayed out in front in large part due to Sean Richardson, who put up a game-high 27 points.
The Lakers’ deficit grew to double digits in the game’s middle stages, but it never turned into a rout, so Skaneateles did have a chance late to make it more interesting, and did so.
Leslie, though not matching his ITC output, still managed 19 points, while Knupp hit five 3-pointers to account for most of his 20 points. Foehl added eight point, but the Lakers fell to 8-9 as it wraps up the regular season Tuesday night, at Jordan-Elbridge.
