Back on Tuesday night, the Marcellus boys basketball team, fresh off its Moravia Tournament title earned on Nov. 25-26, made it three wins in a row by going to Altmar-Parish-Williamstown and beating the Rebels 62-45 in its only action last week.
A 19-8 first-quarter spurt put the Mustangs in control, and though APW ate into that margin, Marcellus got away in the third quarter during a 17-6 push.
With the Rebels holding Tom Fiacchi to seven points, other Mustangs had to step up – and did, starting with Jerrod Gates, who earned 18 points as Nick Femano lurked close behind, scoring 17 points. Ben Fedorenko set a season mark with 13 points. APW got 16 points from Kobe Harrington and 13 points from Justin Bristol.
Jordan-Elbridge had its home opener against Skaneateles last Tuesday night and took a 67-60 defeat to the Lakers. Skaneateles accumulated a 56-40 lead before J-E charged down the stretch. Austin Cassick, who had 20 points, led that charge.
Mason Barrigar and Brandon Wick earned nine points apiece, while Jonah Patrick had seven points. Aidan Carpenter and Dale Wagner both had six points. For Skaneateles, Jake Reed got half of his game-high 24 points from four 3-pointers as Jeremy Castle added 13 points.
Now J-E had to face those other Lakers from Cazenovia Friday night at Buckley Gym, this after the Lakers had gone to Solvay for its season opener and capitalized on an ill-timed drought from the host Bearcats to prevail 48-43.
Solvay has a new head coach, with Jim Rolince stepping after John Barnello’s retirement, and regardless of anything else, Rolince had to like the Bearcats’ spirit as, trailing 39-29 after three quarters, it cut into that deficit and almost caught up.
But Solvay ultimately paid for scoring just two points in the third quarter following a first half where it played on relatively even terms, only down by two, 29-27, at the break.
Jake Dippold led the Bearcats with 14 points, and while eight different players got on the scoreboard, no one else had more than the seven points put up by Shawn Edwards. Meanwhile, three Lakers – Kevin Stalder (17 points), Dan Kent (12 points) and Thomas Bragg (10 points) – reached double figures.
When J-E met Cazenovia, it lost, 56-40, unable to overcome a 31-18 halftime deficit. Carpenter led with just nine points, closely followed by Patrick (eight points), Mason Barrigar (seven points) and Colin Barrigar (six points), while the Lakers saw Bragg hit four 3-pointers on his way to 16 points and Kent added 10 points.
On that same night, Solvay fell to 0-2 with a 63-55 defeat to Pulaski, the game swinging back and forth until the Blue Devils got away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Bearcats 20-14 in those last eight minutes.
Edwards broke out with 21 points for Solvay, including five 3-pointers. Other than that, only Dippold, with 15 points, had more than two field goals. Pulaski’s Noah Smith poured in 26 points and Jacob Gray added 16 points.
