Week by week, and win by win, the Liverpool boys basketball team keeps knocking off historical markers, and the biggest one of all – a chance at a first-ever state championship – is just two wins away.
By defeating Section II champion Bethlehem 78-64 Saturday night at SRC Arena in the Class AA regional final, the Warriors earned a trip to its first state final four since 1991 and won for the 17th time in 18 games.
Leading from start to finish, Liverpool kept answering every time the Eagles tried to make things interesting, sealing it when junior forward Nahjier Johnson netted 17 consecutive points in the second half.
“Every time I got the ball, I felt like it was going down in the net,” said Johnson, who added his hot streak was similar to one he had in a late-January victory over West Genesee.
For the Warriors, it’s a long way from the 2-4 start it suffered through in December. Through all of those close early-season defeats, though, head coach Ryan Blackwell said he still had faith that his team could still reach great heights.
“We thought that if we just kept working, we’ll be where we need to be,” said Blackwell.
Three months later, with an 18-year Section III championship drought erased, Liverpool turned its attention to Bethlehem. Knowing that it had a size advantage, the Warriors intended to close down the paint and force the Eagles into jump shots.
It helped, of course, to start fast. Though it didn’t match the 21-1 blitz of Henninger in the sectional final, the Warriors opened with three consecutive 3-pointers to take a lead it held the rest of the way.
When Bethlehem threatened to get on track, Johnson, in his role of sixth man, came off the bench and promptly delivered eight points that helped the Warriors get a 25-16 lead by the end of the first quarter.
What followed, through much of the next two periods, was a prolonged chase – Liverpool nursing a double-digit lead, never letting Bethlehem get close, but also not getting away as Hayden Thompson and Michael Ortale, with 17 points apiece, kept the Eagles alive.
Yet any time it looked like Bethlehem might make it more interesting, the Warriors answered, stretching the margin to 44-30 at halftime when Kyle Butler’s high-arcing 30-footer swished at the horn.
More important was what happened after Johnson’s corner 3-pointer made it 57-42 at the end of the third period. During the early part of the fourth quarter, the ball kept going to Johnson and he kept piling up points, including one basket where Charles Pride took an offensive rebound in midair and passed it to Johnson, who hit a layup.
By the time he was done, Johnson had netted a season-best 29 points. Otherwise, the production was spread around as Pride got nine points, with Butler and Charlie Meile each getting seven points. Jonah Harder and Noah Isaakainen had six points apiece.
Liverpool’s next destination is the state final four – which, after three-plus decades at Glens Falls Civic Center, moves to Binghamton’s Floyd L. Maines Veterans Arena.
Next Saturday at 12:45, the Warriors meet Section V champion Fairport in the state Class AA semifinal, with the winner going to the final Sunday at 2 p.m. against Mount Vernon (Section I) or Westbury (Section VIII).
Johnson said that, as much as the Warriors have already accomplished, even bigger things remain undone.
“It (winning the regional title) is a great feeling, but we can’t get too excited just yet,” said Johnson.
