Having conquered California, and having garnered national recognition in the process, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball team returned to local action and, again, reminded all the Section III Class AA and CNY Counties League chasers how far they still had to go.
The Northstars offered another clinical example of its supremacy Friday night against Fayetteville-Manlius, putting a halt to the upstart Hornets’ plans as it put together a 77-34 victory with two blinding runs at the start of each half.
Aside from its usual state Class AA ranking (no. 5 this week), C-NS, by virtue of winning the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic Dec. 28-30 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, earned the no. 16 spot in the XCellent Top 25 national rankings done by MaxPreps.
What made that effort more remarkable was that C-NS went through all kinds of travel delays before reaching San Francisco, playing the first game mere hours after arriving in the Bay Area. And it did so while enjoying plenty of diversions, from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Ghiardelli Chocolate factory to a Stanford women’s basketball game.
With all of those experiences in their collective memory banks, the Northstars would, in the first full week of 2016, accept another challenge from F-M, who missed the sectional playoffs a year ago, but has roared to a 9-1 start and no. 13 state ranking this year with just one senior on its roster.
Fully aware of how well the Hornets were playing, C-NS attacked from the outset, scoring the game’s first 18 points and blanking F-M for nearly six minutes. The senior quartet of McKayla Roberts, Samantha Tortora, Beth Bonin and Mary Kate Bonnani all hit 3-pointers in that early run.
Yet when the game went to halftime, the Northstars were unhappy. F-M had somehow weathered this bad start and, down 23-4, had fought back in the second quarter with an 11-5 run.
Though C-NS led, 33-15, at halftime, the talk from head coach Eric Smith and his staff was a stern one. And the Northstars responded in kind, blitzing through the third quarter 29-5 while connecting on four more 3-pointers.
All told, eight different C-NS players converted 13 times beyond the arc, and even forward Amani Free got into the act with a 3-pointer.
Free, who sang the national anthem before the game, recorded 14 points, matching the totals of Roberts and Bonin before they sat out the fourth quarter. Mackenzie O’Hara earned eight points, with Ashley Jimenez and Julianna Vassallo getting six points apiece.
C-NS also held its annual halftime shoot-out featuring girls from each of the district’s six elementary schools – Bear Road, Cicero Elementary, Smith Road, Roxboro, Allen Road and Lakeshore.
And it was Lakeshore earning the first-place trophy, converting 16 shots in three minutes. The victorious group included Samantha Carol, Ella Cassel, Hadley DeVries, Audrey Halpin, Rachel Hubble, Lindsey Kubala and Ava Mazzoli.
Before all this, C-NS, returning from its successful tournament run in San Francisco during the holiday break, rolled past Corcoran 75-22 last Tuesday night, a game that saw the Northstars pitch a first-half shutout, leading 29-0 after one period and 40-0 at intermission.
The Cougars finally scored a basket in the third quarter, but even then the margin got to 67-12 before the reserves played the fourth quarter. Bonin had 16 points, with Free (15 points) and Roberts (14 points) close behind. Bonnani finished with eight points and Tortora contributed six points.
