One of the many marks of greatness for an athlete is performing to expectations, or exceeding them, even when everyone and everything is designed to stop them from doing so.
Such was the case in the closing seconds of Tuesday night’s boys basketball game between Baldwinsville and Liverpool at Onondaga Community College’s’ Allyn Hall.
Trailing by one and having the ball, the Bees were going to put the matter in the capable hands of J.J. Starling, even though the Warriors were going to put several defenders on him to try and impede his path to the basket.
Five seconds remained when Starling inbounded the ball from the right side, in front of his team’s bench, passing it to Bo Nicholson, who, defended by Kyle Caves, immediately dished it back to Starling.
Starting the dribble with his left hand, Starling crossed over to his right, split two more Liverpool defenders and, with a second to spare, laid the ball off the glass and through the net as the clock expired.
Just like that, B’ville had earned a 50-49 victory, had improved its overall record to 7-2, and Starling had another entry in his growing ledger of legend.
Four days earlier, Starling had, in one afternoon against reigning state Class AA champion West Genesee, surpassed 1,000 career points and then scored 16 in the fourth quarter to carry his team past the Wildcats.
Now, against a Liverpool side that had beaten both West Genesee and Corcoran in December, Starling delivered again.
Up until the very end, Liverpool’s defensive strategy – shut down everyone around Starling – worked quite well. The two sides traded the lead throughout the first half with little separation, and even though Starling had 16 points in the half, the Bees only led by two, 27-25, at the break.
What helped keep Liverpool close was an ability to close out quarters. Jacob Vacco’s 3-pointer beat the first-quarter horn, and Romeo Clarke did the same in the final seconds of the third quarter, reducing B’ville’s lead to 37-35.
The back-and-forth battle raged through the final minutes. It was tied, 45-45, when Starling’s sixth 3-pointer of the night got his team in front.
After it pulled back within one, 48-47, Liverpool got possession with 30 seconds left. Instead of holding for a last shot, it instead worked it to Jack Pento, who fired a running, one-handed jumper with 20 seconds to play and converted, putting the Warriors up by one.
But Starling would get the final word and finish the night with 35 points, inching within eight of B’ville’s career scoring leader, Brett Botsford, who had 1,070 points in his Bees tenure from 2005 to ’08.
On Friday night, when B’ville visited Henninger, Starling would make his way past Botsford’s mark and now stood as the Bees’ all-time leading scorer – but the Black Knights would win the night, prevailing 58-47.
From start to finish, Henninger’s attention was on Starling, and the pressure worked as he managed just 18 points, and though Trombley led the Bees with 19 points and Nicholson added eight points, Nate Ray had the Bees’ only other field goal.
Up 26-24 at halftime, the Black Knights outscored the Bees 20-12 in the third quarter and never got caught. Nine different Black Knights got on the scoreboard, twice B’ville’s total, as Tong Mading led the way with 19 points.
So the Bees hit the midway point of the regular season at 7-3, and hosts a big game against 8-2 Corcoran on Tuesday before welcoming Cicero-North Syracuse next Friday.
