At the end of a memorable and emotional Friday night of basketball, Fayetteville-Manlius and Baldwinsville were dead even, even if everyone’s thoughts were trained elsewhere.
The night began with the girls Hornets edging the Bees 34-33, and concluded with the B’ville boys hanging on to prevail over F-M, 65-64, each school winning once, and each side by a single point.
This twin bill was scheduled months ago and was F-M’s annual “Pink Out” game to help raise money and awareness in the fight against breast cancer.
Yet it took on a different meaning when James Josephson, father of F-M player Henry Josephson, passed away earlier in the week. Though the funeral was held on Friday, Henry chose to return to his team and play against B’ville.
So the games went on, and it started with the F-M girls side trying to win its sixth game in a row against B’ville, who had not played since a Jan. 6 defeat to West Genesee.
It was the Bees getting the jump, grabbing a 14-6 lead through one period. Soon after that, though, the two defenses took over, and the slower pace favored the Hornets, even though it still trailed, 31-25, going to the fourth quarter.
B’ville fell into a long drought, and F-M chipped away until, down by two, 31-29, it went out in front when Carly Assimon connected on a 3-pointer. As time wound down, another 3-pointer, by Lily Fish, would prove to be the game-winner.
Alexandra Vinci led the Hornets (9-3) with nine points. Assimon and Alexis Gray each had seven points, while Fish finished with six points.
For B’ville, who fell to 6-4 on the season, Jenna Costello had a game-high 10 points, adding four steals and three rebounds as Katie Pascale got nine points, three assists and three steals. Carolyn Brussel got seven points, five steals and four rebounds.
Now it was the boys turn, and the combination of a loud student section all decked out in pink and the desire to win one for the Josephson family gave F-M a season’s worth of motivation.
And despite all that he was going through, Henry Josephson made major contributions on both sides of the court, finishing with four points as the Hornets and B’ville would engage in a classic.
Just like their female counterparts, the boys Bees got off to the hot start, but its 18-9 first-quarter lead began to dissipate as the pace quickened on both ends.
But the Bees still led deep into the fourth quarter before F-M, trailing 57-53, rattled off four straight points to pull even, 57-57. Then they traded baskets down the stretch, the Bees regaining the lead thanks to a pair of David Cerqua 3-pointers and hanging on at the wire.
Much of B’ville’s offense came from outside the arc. Casey Pluff and Jake Marshall each connected on three 3-pointers and finished with 15 points apiece as all of Cerqua’s 12 points came from four 3-pointers. Gabe Horan and Matt Dickman earned nine points apiece.
F-M saw Tim Zapisek and Ryan Salzberg each produce a game-high 17 points. Jawaan Crouch managed 10 points as Nick Goodfellow added six points.
