Perhaps the Baldwinsville boys basketball team could curse Mother Nature for slowing up possible momentum going into 2015.
The Jan. 3 cancellation of a game against Horseheads at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall prevented the Bees from a valuable tune-up for last Tuesday’s neighborhood clash with Liverpool.
And though, for a while, the Bees looked like it would get the best of the 6-2 Warriors, it saw things fall apart in the latter stages, leading to a painful 69-63 defeat.
From the opening tip, both sides pushed the tempo, leading to lots of exchanges. But B’ville inched into a 22-18 lead by the end of the first quarter and, more or less, maintained that margin through the next two periods, matching every Liverpool push with one of its own.
As the fourth quarter began, B’ville led 53-49, but here the fun ended. Liverpool, led by star junior Tyler Sullivan (who poured in 25 points), wore the Bees’ defenses down and moved out in front for good, ending on a 20-10 run.
Thus, a tremendous defensive effort by Devyn McLeod (20 rebounds, to go with his 11 points) was wasted, with Tim Marshall getting 21 points and eight rebounds and Ben Diorio also earning 11 points, plus six assists. Cameron Skipworth had eight points and Adam Seguin managed seven points.
Now the Bees had to prepare for Friday’s visit from Henninger, who had prevailed 79-58 when the two sides met on Syracuse’s North Side back on Dec. 12.
Exactly four weeks later, it was much closer, but the Bees still lost, 56-46, to the Black Knights, and in many ways the tone was set in the first quarter, where Henninger got comfortable enough to build up a 17-9 lead.
For much of the rest of the game, B’ville’s defense did a solid job slowing the Black Knights down, and what made it more impressive was that Marshall did not get on the board, forcing his teammates to step up.
Seguin managed 13 points and five rebounds, with Skipworth adding 11 points and seven rebounds as DiOrio got 10 points and seven rebounds. McLeod contributed nine rebounds as Shaitique Blatche paced Henninger with 21 points and Romero Collier dished out nine assists, to go with his seven points.
B’ville goes from there to a week of rest before meeting yet another top Class AA contender, Nottingham, at home next Friday night.
