Onondaga — Each of West Genesee’s basketball teams made the short trip up to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena early this week to take part in the Hoops for the Hospital Tournament, benefiting the More Than A Game Foundation and Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
For the boys Wildcats, the tournament served as an opportunity to rebound from its lone defeat of the season, coming to defending Section III Class AA champion Henninger in a 60-55 decision on Dec. 22, and also offered a chance to gain momentum before a big game next Thursday night against visiting state no. 20-ranked Liverpool.
Indeed, WG would prevail in Pool Five – but only after a memorable championship game against Utica Proctor where it dragged into overtime before big efforts from Malik Zachery and Troy Temara helped the Wildcats edge the Raiders 84-81.
Traditionally a Class AA title contender, Proctor had struggled through December, but it possessed Section III’s leading scorer in Jalen Hawkins, who was averaging better than 35 points per game and netted 35 in his team’s 82-61 opening-round win over Johnson City.
Hawkins didn’t disappoint in this game, either, as he helped the Raiders overcome WG’s early 31-16 edge and pull within three, 37-34, by halftime. By the third quarter, Proctor had caught up, and Hawkins remained impossible to contain, eventually finishing with 41 points on 15 field goals, two of them 3-pointers, plus 10 successful foul shots.
In the face of Hawkins’ barrage, WG kept its poise. Trailing by two with a minute to play in regulation, Zachery made a pair of free throws to tie it, 72-72, and though both teams had chances to win it, they could not do so, leading to four minutes of overtime.
More baskets by Zachery and Temara helped the Wildcats go in front during the OT, with Zachery working his total to a career-best 36 points and Temara getting to 31 points. One more stop in the waning seconds, plus a free throw from Chris LaValle with 1.9 seconds left, helped WG hang on.
continued — Before all that, in the opening round,, WG faced Ogdensburg Free Academy and put together its most lopsided victory of the season, doubling up the Blue Devils and getting a career-best scoring effort from LaValle in a 78-39 victory.
Steadily, the Wildcats gained a 36-25 lead by halftime, but proceeded to bury OFA during a 25-5 third-quarter surge. Through it all, LaValle couldn’t miss, eventually gaining 23 points as Zachery added 12 points and Troy Temara 11 points. All told, 11 different WG players got at least one field goal by game’s end.
West Genesee’s girls basketball team was part of Pool Four at the Hoops for the Hospital Tournament, paired up with Fayetteville-Manlius in last Monday’s opening round less than two weeks after dropping a 57-43 decision to the Hornets on Dec. 15.
Here, the game was closer, but the result the same as the Wildcats fell, 46-36, though much of that margin was built up by F-M sinking free throws in the last 90 seconds of an otherwise tight, low-scoring affair.
The midday tip-off may have contributed to the energy level on both sides, but so did strong defense that led to long scoring droughts and WG trailing, 17-14, at halftime before it scored the first six points of the third quarter to move in front, 20-17.
F-M countered with its own 9-1 run, and was up, 30-24, early in the fourth quarter before Sierra Smith’s 3-pointer and an old-fashioned three-point play by Haley Collins tied it, 30-30, with 6:02 to go.
But the Hornets got key late baskets from Lizzie Hall and Carly Assimon as part of a 16-6 closing push, Assimon finishing with 12 points as guard D’Jhai Patterson-Ricks led both sides with 15 points. No Wildcats player scored in double figures, though Sierra Smith, with nine points, got close, with Collins adding seven points and Madison Smith adding five points. Elle Lazore, WG’s leading scorer this season, was held to a single field goal.
continued — WG met Rush-Henrietta (Section V) in the Pool Four consolation bracket final, and nearly made a remarkable late-game comeback, only to get thwarted at the wire by the Royal Comets in a 42-41 defeat.
Rush-Henrietta took charge early, leading 17-8 after one period, but during the game’s middle stages the Wildcats hung in there, refusing to let the Royal Comets run away.
Then, down 37-27, WG went on a closing 14-5 surge, the comeback falling just short as Madison Smith, who finished with 11 points, led that effort. Lazore bounced back from her F-M struggles to earn nine points, while Collins got six points.
With those defeats, the girls Wildcats fell to 5-6 on the season, and would visit Liverpool next Thursday night in its lone game in the first full week of 2016.