One more day to wait out weather had to pass before the Manlius-Pebble Hill boys basketball team could enter the Section III Class C playoff fray.
Given the no. 11 seed in Class C for the sectional tournament, MPH had to go on the road to face no. 6 seed West Canada Valley in Saturday’s opening round. And while the Trojans would fall short in a 58-47 defeat to the Indians, it offered an effort worthy of its special season.
Early nerves were apparent as MPH scored just four points in the first quarter. But it leaned on its own defense to climb back in it, cutting West Canada’s lead to 21-15 by halftime.
However, the Trojans never could produce any sort of consistent offense until the fourth quarter, when it went into catch-up mode, only to see the Indians answer every MPH charge.
Despite it all, Dan Byrnes offered up one more strong performance, getting a triple-double as he registered 24 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks. Jon Cerio had eight points, with Joey Cerio adding six points.
West Canada prevailed by spreading out its attack. Robert Davenport, with 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists, led the way as Jordan Yaworski managed 17 points, Mike Sternberg had 15 points and eight rebounds and Alex Williams added 12 points and 13 rebounds.
MPH offered quite an exclamation point to the regular season last Monday night when it stunned one of the Class C powers, Fabius-Pompey, with a dramatic 51-50 victory.
Entering the game, the Falcons were 16-1, about to claim the top seed for the Section III tournament, and had beaten the Trojans 51-33 in dearly December.
But F-P was coming off a hard-fought 52-50 win over Weedsport two days earlier, and MPH would not let them relax, especially forward Dan Byrnes, who hurt the Falcons in the paint from the opening tip as the Trojans jumped out to a 16-8 lead.
And MPH didn’t get flustered when F-P rallied and moved in front, 25-24, by halftime. Byrnes continued to flourish in the third quarter, and the Trojans claimed a 39-34 lead going to the fourth quarter.
Led by Stewart Wright, who finished with 19 points, the Falcons came back again, and grabbed a 50-48 lead as the game went to the final possession.
MPH had the ball, and with the Falcons smothering Byrnes (who had 25 points), the ball swung to Dan Cerio in the corner. With nine seconds left, Cerio’s 3-pointer found the net, giving the Trojans a one-point lead, and it held on from there.
