Back-to-back victories – one in the final seconds at West Genesee, the other back home against Cicero-North Syracuse – had the Baldwinsville boys basketball team in a good mood going into (fittingly) Pool B of last weekend’s “More Than A Game” Holiday Classic at SRC Arena.
Once there, though, cold reality struck the Bees hard, as it took a pair of defeats to a pair of foes outside of Section III that took very different paths.
Shenendehowa, visiting from the Section II ranks, would toy with B’ville throughout Saturday’s tournament opener, controlling all the phases of the game as the Plainsmen prevailed 74-35.
Little went right for B’ville. Even when it slowed up Shen’s potent attack, it still couldn’t put together any sort of run, the deficit growing to 31-15 by halftime and much more lopsided in the last two periods.
Only Ben DiOrio, with 11 points, got to double figures for the Bees. Tim Marshall got held to a season-low seven points, while Cameron Skipworth had six rebounds and John Brecht added five points.
Looking to turn it around one day later, B’ville faced Ithaca, from Section IV, and almost pulled off a late-game comeback before falling to the Little Red by a one-point margin, 64-63.
Ithaca steadily gained control throughout the first half, and the Bees found itself trailing 36-24 at the break. Unlike with Shenendehowa, though, B’ville would battle back in the second half, eating away at the Little Red’s lead all the way to the wire.
Marshall roared again, with 21 points and nine rebounds, while Brecht stepped up with 14 points. Devyn McLeod managed 10 rebounds to go with his seven points as Ryan Kohutanich got nine points and Ben Diorio earned eight points, plus five assists.
Despite all this, Ithaca held on, and B’ville found itself at 2-5 going into 2015, whose portion of the schedule begins Jan. 6 against visiting Liverpool before a rematch three days later with the Henninger side it lost to by a 79-58 margin back on Dec. 12.
