In most instances, a game similar to the Liverpool boys basketball team’s trip to Rochester Aquinas last Saturday would be easy to overlook.

After all, the Warriors had just blasted Bishop Ludden in the final of the Gaelic Knights’ own Rosemary Corcoran Holiday Classic on Dec. 27, had just climbed into the state Class AA rankings in the no. 20 spot (Aquinas was at no. 19) and had, up ahead, big Class AA showdowns with Henninger and West Genesee in the first full week of 2016.

However, for players such as Naj Johnson, Joe Scro and Jordan Caviness, beating Aquinas would provide some small payback, since they were all on the Liverpool football team that suffered a bitter one-point (17-16) defeat to the Little Irish in the Nov. 21 state AA semifinal, the bitterness only growing when Aquinas went on to rout Saratoga Springs and win the state championship eight days later.

So Liverpool was focused on beating Aquinas – only to find, in this game, that the result on the court was the same as the gridiron, only with a little more cushion for the Irish, who prevailed by an 80-60 margin.

In reality, the first quarter decided matters. Contrasting the way it jumped all over Ludden earlier in the week, Liverpool found itself frustrated and overwhelmed as Aquinas sprinted out to a 24-7 lead by the time the period was done.

And it would get worse, the Warriors’ deficit growing to 45-21 by halftime before it finally started to settle down. No single player could catch fire, though, as Tyler Sullivan led with 13 points and Will Cutler added 12 points. Scro got 10 points, but Johnson had just six points and Nate Cutler got held to a single field goal.

Much earlier in the week, Cicero-North Syracuse paid its own visit to the Rochester area and, at first, found more frustration in a 46-44 defeat to Webster Schroeder.

What made it more painful was the way the game ended. Up 24-23 at halftime, the Northstars appeared to take over in the third quarter, outscoring Schroeder 16-7, but those Warriors proceeded to shut C-NS down in the final period and close 16-4 to snatch victory.

Thus, a great effort by Alex Gray, who had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, was wasted, as was Brendan Gacek’s 12-point, six-rebound effort. Josh Ramirez added 10 points and five rebounds as Jon Petrin had six points and A.J. Nesci got six rebounds and seven assists.

But C-NS did break its four-game skid a day later against Rochester Career Mentoring Charter, prevailing 84-69 in a game where it ran at will during the first half and roared out to a 49-30 lead, which proved more than enough, even though RCMC would eat into that margin in the second half.

Gacek, in particular, broke out, setting a career mark with 29 points. But 11 different players got on the board for the Northstars, including Nesci, who had 15 points, and Gray, who finished with 11 points. Ramirez contributed seven points.

With the win, C-NS improved to 4-6 as it passed the midway point of its regular season, returning to CNY Counties League play on Tuesday by hosting Corcoran before a Friday-night trip to Fayetteville-Manlius.