With one superb performance, the Liverpool girls basketball team may have saved its season, and given other Section III Class AA contenders a bit more to think about.
The Warriors took on Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night and put a halt to the Hornets’ seven-game win streak, leaning on Jenna Wike for baskets and its defense for all-around excellence during a 48-39 victory.
Only 4-6 in the first half of the regular season, Liverpool was stingy in the early going against F-M, holding them to seven points in the first quarter. But its own inconsistency kept the Hornets close as it only trailed by one, 20-19, at the break.
Then Wike took charge on offense, continuing to punish F-M for putting its attention anywhere else. Between seven field goals (three of them 3-pointers), three 3-pointers and seven field goals, Wike finished with 25 points, and didn’t work alone since Kyra Grimshaw made her way to 12 points. Carly Assimon and Alexandra Vinci led the Hornets with 12 points apiece.
Now the trick was for the Warriors to follow up one great effort with another Friday against visiting Baldwinsville, a team it lost to, 63-46, at Baker High School a month earlier. And it almost did so, were it not for last-minute plays that helped the Bees edge the Warriors 51-50.
Neither side would gain any real separation all night long. Though Liverpool was held to five points in the second quarter, B’ville only led 24-20 at halftime, a margin that Liverpool gradually erased during a closely-fought second half.
With a minute to play, Liverpool was up 50-49, and had the ball. Then B’ville’s Kaylee Lammers anticipated a pass, stole it and converted a lay-up on the other end to give B’ville a one-point lead. Though the Warriors had a chance to regain the edge, Lammers ruined that plan with another clutch steal, her fourth of the night.
Wike had a game-high 18 points and Kyra Grimshaw added 10 points. Of Lammers’ seven points, five came in the fourth quarter as she also got four assists and three steals, while Jenna Costello paced B’ville with 15 points and four rebounds as Claire McAllister stepped up for 12 points and seven rebounds.
Far from all this, Cicero-North Syracuse hosted Baldwinsville last Tuesday night and saw things get away during the second quarter of a 67-41 defeat to the Bees.
It was only a 9-7 game in the Bees’ favor when the visitors put together a 22-10 push to close the first half. For the rest of the game, the margin got bigger and no single C-NS player could get going as Jessica Cook, Julianna Vassallo and Morgan Siechen led with just six points apiece.
By contrast, B’ville had Kaylee Lammers lead all individuals with 19 points, adding six rebounds. Carolyn Brussel and Jenna Costello each had 15 points, with Brussel adding 13 rebounds and Costello collecting five rebounds, four steals and three assists.
C-NS rebounded Friday night to rout Henninger 63-26, its most lopsided victory of the season. Steadily, the Northstars built a 52-26 lead through three periods and then shut out the Black Knights in the fourth quarter even with the outcome long settled.
All 10 players that saw action got at least one point, with Cook earning eight of her 18 points at the free-throw line and Aniah Ingram contributing 13 points. Vassallo had eight points as Mackenzie White and Nia Williams had five points apiece. The win improved C-NS’s record to 4-7, not far from Liverpool’s mark of 5-7.
