Instead of frustration at just missing out on chances to secure a Section III Class AA playoff berth in its previous two games, the Baldwinsville boys basketball team used it as motivation to make sure that things did not get too close in the last week of the regular season.
To that end, the Bees took to the court last Tuesday night against Nottingham, and even a poor start didn’t faze the hosts, who turned it around by halftime and got away late to beat the Bulldogs 65-48 and lock up its post-season spot.
Since it only carried a 3-8 record in the CNY Counties League going into the night, B’ville’s best hope of getting into the sectional tournament lay with having an overall .400 win percentage. A win over Nottingham would assure no worse than an 8-12 record.
A poor first quarter left the Bees trailing the Bulldogs 17-10, but that deficit was gone by halftime as a scoring barrage helped B’ville produced a 23-8 burst. From there, it traded baskets until the final period and then got away from Nottingham.
Casey Pluff, who scored 14 points, led a deep, well-balanced B’ville attack. Alex Robinson gained 12 points, while Gabe Horan had 10 points. Chris Taylor managed nine points as Jake Marshall got eight points and David Cerqua seven points. Matt Dickman earned the other five points as, for the Bulldogs, Jakair Sanchez had 16 points and Jevon Jones added 13 points.
With all of the pressure of trying to reach the playoffs now behind them, B’ville could relax and try to finish at the .500 mark. To do so, it had to win against Fayetteville-Manlius on Friday as part of the “Hoops for the Hospital’ doubleheader that raised funds for Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
In a close, tense battle that mirrored their first meeting at F-M a month earlier, the Bees lost, 57-54, in overtime. The game was tight from start to finish as the Bees were unable to hold on to a 33-30 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Hornets rallying to tie it, 47-47, to get the game to an extra period.
Ten different B’ville players earned a field goal, but only Cerqua, with 14 points, and Dickman, with 13 points, had anything more than the five points put up by Pluff. Meanwhile, F-M leaned on Tim Zapisek, who got eight of his 20 points at the free-throw line as Nick Goodfellow added 15 points.
That left B’ville at 8-11 going into Tuesday’s regular-season finale at Cicero-North Syracuse, whose own post-season aspirations were hurt by Saturday’s narrow 77-75 defeat to the same Nottingham team the Bees handled earlier in the week.
