Whether the Baldwinsville girls basketball team’s narrow Jan. 20 escape at Liverpool serves as a turning point that pushes the Bees toward championship honors in February and early March remains an open question.
What isn’t in dispute, though, was how much B’ville needed that win in the wake of defeats to West Genesee and Fayetteville-Manlius earlier in the month, and the Bees get a chance at payback against the CNY Counties League-leading Wildcats Thursday night on its home court.
Before all that, though, B’ville hosted Nottingham last Thursday night, a solid effort that saw the Bees’ defense regain some of its early-season bite as it pushed past the Bulldogs by a score of 56-33.
What helped that defense was that the Bees had started so fast, bolting to a 23-10 lead by the end of the first quarter. Try as it could, Nottingham couldn’t answer that outburst, instead getting just five points in the second quarter as the margin grew to 36-15.
Rolling from there, B’ville saw Carolyn Brussel lead with 16 points and eight assists. Jenna Costello had 10 points, with Katie Pascale adding eight points but also nabbing a season-best eight steals, plus six assists. Alena Criss gained eight points, three steals, three rebounds and two assists as Kaylee Lammers had six points and Claire McAllister contributed four rebounds.
Just 24 hours later, the Bees hosted Henninger and handled the Black Knights 67-43 to improve its mark to 10-4. The first quarter proved nearly identical to the Nottingham game in that B’ville led, 21-10, at the end of it and continued to stretch out that advantage for the rest of the night.
Lammers, with 13 points, led a well-balanced attack as McAllister got 12 points and six rebounds and Brussel earned 10 points and eight rebounds, plus three assists, two blocks and three steals.
Rachel Foertch added to that effort with eight points, six rebounds and five steals, while Costello contributed seven points and four rebounds. Pascale had six points, six assists and six steals. Shynia Chandler paced Henninger’s effort with 15 points.
Aside from the rematch with West Genesee, B’ville would also take on Rome Free Academy Monday and Corcoran on Tuesday – so the game against WG would be the team’s fifth in an eight-day span.
