The Friday before Christmas offered Liverpool a chance to properly celebrate the greatest season in the history of the school’s boys basketball program.
In a ceremony prior to the Warriors’ game against Corcoran, the 2017-18 New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA champions, who had a perfect 26-0 record on the way to that state crown, were honored.
Charles Pride, Nahjeir Johnson, Noah Issakainen, Alan Willmes, Pete Cerrone and the rest of the seniors from that team were in town to join returning nine returning players, coach Ryan Blackwell and his staff for the ceremony.
Each of the players were given state championship rings, just as the 2017 baseball state champions received, and a banner was unveiled in the high school gymnasium with all of the players’ names on it.
Once the ceremonies were done, the game started, and for a long while Liverpool gave every impression that it would make the night perfect by upending Corcoran, who entered the night undefeated at 6-0 and had beaten the Warriors two weeks earlier.
With one quarter to play, Liverpool led by one, only to see the Cougars take over down the stretch, outscoring them 21-6 in the last six minutes to prevail 65-51.
Romeo Clarke had 15 points and Kyle Ruston added 14 points, but Corcoran held Kyle Butler to four points and got a big night from De’Jour Reaves, whose 26 points was augmented by 16 points from D.J. Haynes.
Earlier in the week, Liverpool had won its first game of the season over rival Cicero-North Syracuse, but the Northstars rebounded on Friday against visiting Baldwinsville, playing superb defense to earn a 52-45 victory over the Bees.
Though B’ville was without one of its top scorers, Jake Marshall, it still led early before C-NS outscored them 17-8 in the second quarter to go out in front, where it stayed most of the rest of the way.
Nick DeMonte had a superb night, with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Justin DelVecchio amassed 12 rebounds and four assists to go with six points.
Anthony Tricarico finished with eight points, five assists, three steals and four rebounds as Brayden McLean had seven points and five rebounds. Defensively, C-NS held B’ville’s top scorer, J.J. Starling, to 14 points, a number Cam Weatherly matched.
