Forgetting its no. 6 seed and all the ups and downs it faced during a 9-10 regular season, the Liverpool girls basketball team would make a spirited push to reach the Section III Class AA championship game.
It all beganTuesday night, when the Warriors went on the road and knocked off no. 3 seed Fayetteville-Manlius 46-33, a surprise only when considering the seeds of both sides.
After all, Liverpool had beaten the Hornets 48-39 at home on Jan. 17, and though F-M prevailed 46-36 on Feb. 14, the Warriors weren’t a bit concerned about that latter result, as it would show when it returned to the ‘Hornets Nest’ a week later and prevailed in the match-up that mattered most.
Right from the start, the Warriors’ defense displayed top form, holding F-M to four points in the opening period. That built up confidence which withstood the Hornets’ second-quarter awakening, and at halftime Liverpool clung to a 21-18 lead.
Throughout the second half, any hint of F-M trying to establish its own rhythm got interrupted. Instead, Liverpool steadily added to its lead while, at the same, increased its defensive pressure, one side helping the other.
Jenna Wike led the Warriors’ attack. Of her 18 points, half of it came from three 3-pointers, while Amanda Barnell established herself inside and got 14 points. The rest of the offense came from Kyra Grimshaw and Breanna Socker, who earned eight points apiece. For the Hornets, Alexis Schneider had 10 points and Carly Assimon added eight points.
While Liverpool was stopping F-M, Cicero-North Syracuse, the no. 8 seed, saw its season of growth and learning halted by top seed West Genesee in a 53-25 defeat that was decided early.
So much had changed since the Northstars beat the Wildcats 60-24 in last March’s sectional Class AA final. Having lost twice to WG in the regular season, C-NS hoped, at the very least, to make things more stressful the third time around.
Instead, it ran into the steel trap of WG’s defense and would not get out for quite a while.
Following a pair of early baskets, C-NS did not score for the rest of the first half. On possession after possession, the Northstars were pressured into bad shots and other mistakes, while the Wildcats took those mistakes and converted them into enough baskets for a 28-4 halftime edge.
The drought continued for more than 15 minutes before C-NS got on the board again in the third quarter, far too late to do much about avoiding its first sectional post-season defeat since 2008, when Breanna Stewart was still an eighth-grader.
Nia Williams had seven points for the Northstars, who finished with a 7-12 record. Julianna Vassallo and Aniah Ingram each got five points as 10 different Wildcat players got on the scoreboard, led by Madison Smith, who had 14 points.
This sets up Sunday’s sectional AA semifinals at SRC Arena, where Liverpool would try and topple no. 2 seed Central Square, who handled Auburn 50-26 in its quarterfinal. The winner would go to the March 4 final against West Genesee or Utica Proctor, who ousted Baldwinsville 63-50.
