Sitting at 12-1 as last week’s action got underway, the Chittenango boys basketball team would slow down a bit before the calendar turned to the pivotal month of February.
In last Wednesday night’s game at Homer, the state Class B no. 22-ranked Bears would find itself topped by the Trojans throughout the night, and then put away late during a 68-60 defeat.
Homer nudged in front during an active first half. Trailing 32-26, Chittenango erased most of that deficit in the third quarter, only to have the Trojans respond with strong play down the stretch from a well-balanced ttack.
For its part, the Bears got five 3-pointers from Dylan Voutsinas as his 17 points topped Zach Falkenburg’s total of 16 points. Hunter Hendrix and Sam Hill had 11 points apiece. Homer’s Jacob Rivers had a game-high 19 points, helped by 3-pointers, as Bryant Quinlan added 14 points and Riley McEvoy had 13 points. Tucker O’Donnell got 10 points.
This added a bit more urgency to Friday night’s home game against Solvay, and Chittenango played with a bit of extra purpose, never letting the Bearcats get too close in the course of prevailing by a 60-34 margin.
After scoring 23 points in a hot-shooting first quarter, the Bears turned to its defense, which limited Solvay to just two points in the second period. Though not as stingy the rest of the way, Chittenango continued to add to its lead.
Falkenburg again led the charge, earning 23 points. Voutsinas hit three 3-pointers on his way to 13 points overall, while Hendrix got seven points. No Solvay player reached double figures, though Jake Dippold (nine points) and Brady Preble (eight points) got close.
Cazenovia had shown good form throughout January – at least until last Wednesday’s game at Oneida, where the Indians got all the payback it wanted while handing the Lakers a 76-48 defeat.
These same teams had met Jan. 14 at Cazenovia College, and there the Lakers prevailed 60-52. A mere 11 days later, the venue changed, and so did the outcome.
Try as it could, Cazenovia could not match Oneida’s torrid pace in the first half, and trailed 43-30 at the break. Then it got a lot worse when the hot-shooting Indians outscored the Lakers 24-6 to drain all the suspense out of the outcome.
Part of the Lakers’ problem was that it spent too much time trying to defend Oneida’s 1,000-point scorer, Jeff Coulter. That left Alex Hawthorne open, and the Indians guard torched Cazenovia for nine 3-pointers on his way to a career-best 33 points, and Coulter still finished with 17 points.
No one on Cazenovia’s squad got close to matching those efforts. Thomas Bragg led with just 12 points, while Dan Kent had nine points. Austin Enders put in eight points and Nate Romig earned all seven of his points at the free-throw line.
Rebounding a night later, the Lakers moved to 11-5 and clinched a winning record for 2016-17 by hammering Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 64-34. Cazenovia hit plenty of shots during the first half as it roared to a 40-14 lead and was never seriously threatened.
Kent led with 15 points, most of it from three 3-pointers. Enders stepped up and got 13 points, while Bragg, who had 10 points, and Romig, wh o had eight points, both converted twice beyond the arc. On APW’s side, only Justin Bristol, with 11 points, scored in double figures.
