During the last full week of the regular season, one Fayetteville-Manlius basketball team was gearing up for the post-season, and the other was wishing that it could do the same.
For the girls Hornets, a Section III Class A playoff berth was long secured by the time it went to Henninger last Tuesday night, and here the defense was in top form throughout most of F-M’s 54-28 victory over the Black Knights.
All through first half, Henninger did not even get to double digits, the Hornets steadily shutting down the Cougars while, at the same time, generating enough baskets to earn a 31-9 halftime lead.
That margin grew to 42-15 by the fourth quarter, when the starters sat. By then, Alexis Schneider had picked up 15 points, while Alexis Gray had 12 points and Carly Assimon earned 11 points. Lily Fish added eight points as Josea Sanjurjo led Henninger with 11 points.
Of far bigger importance was Friday night’s trip to Baldwinsville, who boasted nearly the same record as the Hornets, and their first meeting Jan. 13 had proved a close one, F-M pulling it out 35-34.
Exactly four weeks later, the rematch would be just as close – at least until the fourth quarter, when the Hornets took over and prevailed by a 46-34 margin in the first half of a “Hoops for the Hospital” doubleheader raising money for Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
Neither side gained any separation until the second quarter, when F-M outscored B’ville 17-8. Down 28-20 at halftime, the Bees held the Hornets to four points in the third period, yet could not take full advantage of it, only netting 10 points of its own.
Thus, F-M was able to regroup and close strong on both ends, limiting the Bees to four points in those last eight minutes and getting everyone in the rotation involved in terms of producing baskets.
For the night, Lizzie Hall led with just nine points, but Gray and Alexandra Vinci each produced eight points, with Schneider, Assimon and Fish getting six points apiece. B’ville proved too reliant on Kaylee Lammers, who had 18 points. Claire McAllister got eight points and six rebounds, but no one else had more than Katie Pascale’s total of four points.
In boys basketball, F-M’s game at Henninger was a homecoming of sorts for Hornets head coach Jason Dudzinski, who was a long-time assistant coach under Erik Saroney at Henninger.
Now, Saroney is coaching a nationally-ranked team at Onondaga Community College, but his successor, Gil Speights, has turned the Black Knights around with a win streak that it continued at the Hornets’ expense.
Henninger’s 67-53 win at F-M was basically decided in the first half. The Hornets were cold from the field and that, combined with the Black Knights’ defense, created a 30-11 deficit at the break, and the margin grew to 53-23 by the end of the third quarter.
Most of Tim Zapisek’s 18 points came in the latter stages, while Jawaan Crouch had 10 points. Nick Goodfellow got eight points and Nick Perry earned six points as, for Henninger, Jaden Graves got 19 points, with Djuhardin Sojo (13 points), Kaijah Rodgers (12 points) and Requan Porch (11 points) were close behind.
On Friday night, F-M met B’ville in the second half of that ‘Hoops for the Hospital’ twin bill. In a close, tense battle that mirrored their first meeting a month earlier, the Hornets turned around that earlier result and prevailed, 57-54,in overtime.
The game was tight from start to finish as the Hornets rallied from a 33-30 deficit entering the fourth quarter, tying it, 47-47, to force OT, where it picked up 10 points to B’ville’s seven and hung on.
F-M leaned on Zapisek, who got eight of his 20 points at the free-throw line as Goodfellow added 15 points. On the other side, ten different B’ville players earned a field goal, but only David Cerqua, with 14 points, and Matt Dickman, with 13 points, had anything more than the five points put up by Casey Pluff.
