Those accustomed to seeing the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball team run far away from local opposition ended up pleased by Saturday night’s 60-33 victory over Utica Proctor in Saturday night’s Section III Class AA semifinal at SRC Arena, but getting to that point of comfort wasn’t easy.
Though it never trailed in the game, and never got a serious scare, the top-seeded, state no. 3-ranked Northstars fought both inconsistency and lethargy before finding its top form late in the third quarter to get away from the no. 4 seed Raiders and set up next Saturday’s sectional final against Rome Free Academy.
Some mitigating factors were in place. Neither C-NS nor Proctor had played for eight days since their Feb. 20 wins in the sectional quarterfinals – the Northstars over Liverpool, the Raiders over Auburn. Also, a late Saturday-night tip time didn’t help matters.
Throughout the first quarter, C-NS had as many turnovers as baskets, but freshman forward Amani Free emerged from that mire with six points in the period to help create a 17-8 lead.
Both sides cooled off in the second period, but for Proctor, it turned into a drought. With the Northstars picking up defensive pressure, it managed to hold the Raiders without a point for more than nine minutes, all while putting together a 14-0 run that created a 27-10 halftime margin.
Quickly, though, that strong defense dissipated and C-NS saw Proctor more than double its point total in the first three minutes of the second half. Instead of cruising ahead, the Northstars were struggling, and the Raiders were within 11, 34-23, deep into the third quarter.
At that point, the Northstars switched to full-court pressure, and the results were immediate. In a span of 90 seconds, C-NS generated 10 unanswered points, six of them from Beth Bonin, and closed the period on a 14-2 run, putting the game out of Proctor’s reach.
Free, the freshman forward, led the Northstars with 17 points. C-NS head coach Eric Smith said that, as with any talented young player, instinct serves her best.
“When Amani plays, and doesn’t think about it too much, she’s really good,” said Smith.
Bonin produced 13 points, while McKayla Roberts managed nine points. Emilee Norris and Samantha Tortora each had six points as Ashante Smallwood paced Proctor, matching Bonin’s 13-point effort.
To win its seventh consecutive sectional title on that same SRC Arena floor, the Northstars will have to get past RFA (19-2), the no. 2 seed, who won a hard-fought 53-49 battle with no. 3 seed Baldwinsville in the other semifinal.
No doubt, C-NS will center its defensive effort on stopping the Black Knights’ 6-foot-3 senior center, Tianna Pugh, who got 21 points and nine rebounds against B’ville and is a threat both in the paint and with outside shots. But all of RFA’s players can hit from oustide, as it hurt the Bees with eight 3-pointers.