With the confidence gained from a 6-1 stretch at the end of the regular season and an impressive first-round playoff win over Liverpool, the Baldwinsville boys basketball team sought something much bigger when it ventured to face top seed Henninger in Tuesday night’s Section III Class AA quarterfinal.
Just as the year before, though, the Bees’ run would end here.
Fully aware of the danger a red-hot opponent possessed, the Black Knights imposed its will from the outset and never let up once, overwhelming B’ville and eventually prevailing by an 87-47 margin.
They had played twice this winter, on Dec. 12 and Jan. 9. The first game was a 79-58 Henninger rout, but B’ville took some encouragement from containing the Black Knights on the defensive end in the 56-46 rematch a month later at the Baker High School Gym.
The Bees’ late-season surge had followed, but while that turned an uncertain B’ville unit into one brimming with confidence, it also drew the Black Knights’ attention, and assured that there was no way Henninger was going to look past them toward bigger games ahead.
Refreshed from a first-round bye and a 10-day break, the Black Knights sprung its top defender, Terrence Walker, on Tim Marshall, and would apply tight man-to-man pressure everywhere else, too, and the Bees could not get going.
Trailing 19-8 after one period, B’ville produced a bit more offense in the second quarter – but so did Henninger, the margin growing to 40-20. And any hopes of a comeback quickly dissolved as the Black Knights outscored the Bees 24-10 in the third quarter.
Marshall, chased all night by Walker, managed just eight points, not even half the 20 he put up against Liverpool the round before. Devyn McLeod led with 13 points and five rebounds, while Ben DiOrio had 10 points and four assists. Ryan Kohutanich and Cameron Skipworth had four points apiece.
Henninger’s balance and depth proved too much to handle. Point guard Romero Collier dished out 14 assists to go with his 16 points, while Destin Blunt had a double-double of his own with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Shaitique Blatche had a game-high 19 points as Keisean Scott got 13 points. Nijuwan Smith (eight points, nine rebounds) and Ronzell Walker (11 rebounds) helped, too.
B’ville now must see its entire starting five – Marshall, Kohutanich, Skipworth, McLeod and DiOrio – depart, the group having brought the program back from a long, dark period to enjoy back-to-back sectional playoff appearances in 2014 and ’15.
