Not even a month ago, the Baldwinsville boys basketball team was 2-9, battling injuries and seemingly headed out of any consideration for the Section III Class AA playoffs.
Now, though, the Bees are not just a sectional qualifier, it is, thanks to a roaring finish to the regular season, someone that might make serious trouble for anyone it faces.
Already, B’ville had won four of five games when it hosted 12-5 Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night at the Baker High School Gym, and led by Tim Marshall, the Bees got some sweet payback, defeating the Hornets 58-47.
Even before it tipped off, B’ville received an enormous break, for F-M, who prevailed 68-61 on its home court when the two sides first met Dec. 16, did not have its senior point guard, Jake Wittig, in the lineup due to a facial injury suffered in the team’s Feb. 6 win over Liverpool.
Not having to worry about the University of Rochester-bound Wittig, the Bees could stay patient through a 14-14 first quarter and wait for the second period to take over, outscoring F-M 16-7 in those eight minutes.
Try as it could, the short-handed Hornets could not recover, and Marshall made sure of that, earning a game-high 21 points and adding seven rebounds, plus three assists.
Helping out, point guard Ben DiOrio had 12 points and five assists, plus three rebounds. Devyn McLeod amassed 14 rebounds to go with his eight points, while Cameron Skipworth also had eight points and Ryan Kohutanich contributed seven points.
F-M had no one close to capable of filling Wittig’s multiple roles, and its leading scorer, Jimmy Barns, had just 11 points, with Nick Quilty-Koval adding 10 points and David Stegemann eight points.
Now B’ville turned around and faced Corcoran in Saturday’s regular-season finale. It proved to be a fast-paced, back-and-forth thriller, but the Bees were able to hang on down the stretch and earn a 76-73 victory over the Cougars.
Red-hot at the outset, B’ville scored 31 first-quarter points, and even though it couldn’t maintain that pace, it still led 43-33 at halftime. Gradually, Corcoran ate into that margin in the second half, catching up in the final minutes as its star guard, Marquis Gilbert, dropped in 32 points, nearly half of it from five 3-pointers.
B’ville would make shots in the clutch, though, and get it from multiple sources. Marshall had 25 points and five rebounds, while Skipworth stepped up with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists. DiOrio had 11 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and five assists as McLeod added six points, six rebounds and five assists, and Kohutanich got eight points.
Drawing the no. 8 seed in the 10-team sectional Class A bracket, B’ville is hosting no. 9 seed Liverpool Friday night as the second part of a playoff doubleheader that starts with the girls game against Central Square. The winner here will try and topple top seed Henninger in next Tuesday’s quarterfinal round.
