The setback taken by the Fayetteville-Manlius girls basketball team at Cicero-North Syracuse on Jan. 8 meant that it would take a hit in the latest state Class AA rankings, falling five spots, from no. 13 to no. 18.
Yet in no other way did the Hornets suffer any lingering effects from that 77-34 defeat to the Northstars, for when it returned home last Tuesday night to face Auburn, the typical F-M formula was on display again as it beat the Maroons 50-32.
This was a steady effort, with the Hornets building a 28-18 halftime lead and then sealing the outcome by holding Auburn to five points in the third quarter, all the while seeing its backcourt pair of D’Jhai Patterson-Ricks and Carly Assimon flourish again.
Patterson-Ricks, held back by foul trouble at C-NS, earned 16 points this time around, while Assimon poured in 14 points. Alexis Gray added six points. For Auburn, Stefanie Gera had 10 points and Grace Baranick added nine points.
F-M was supposed to have back-to-back games, but snow postponed a visit to Rome Free Academy, which will get made up this Wednesday night. But the Hornets did play at Nottingham on Friday, and fought its way to a 46-32 victory over the Bulldogs.
During a strong first half, F-M again leaned on its defense, limiting Nottingham to 12 points. Then, with a double-digit halftime lead, the Hornets pulled clear behind 18 points from Patterson-Ricks and 12 points from Assimon as Gray added six points.
Meanwhile, F-M’s boys basketball team, who had squandered a second-half lead against visiting C-NS on Jan. 9, could not recover in its trip to Auburn last Tuesday night as it lost to the Maroons by a score of 71-61.
This was the same Auburn team F-M beat 64-56 on Dec. 1 in its first-ever game in its new home gym, but the second encounter had a different outcome despite a renewed balance in the Hornets’ attack.
David Stegemann had one of his best showings of the season, earning 14 points and seven rebounds. Jawaan Crouch had 12 points, six assists, four rebounds and four steals, while Tim Zapisek got 10 points and five steals. Fernando Johnson and Tyler Papa had eight points apiece and combined for nine rebounds.
For Auburn, Derek Taylor led the way, backing up his 22 points with 12 rebounds. Javon Reese, with 16 points, wasn’t far behind, while Nasir Smith dished out 11 assists to go with his eight points.
With its home game against Rome Free Academy 24 hours later snowed out, F-M, at 5-7, faced a crucial stretch of its season where it would face Corcoran on Tuesday, make up the RFA game on Thursday and then host West Genesee on Friday – all told, three games in four nights.
