Big news hit area high school boys basketball long before a trio of the top teams traveled to Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall for the season-opening Peppino’s Invitational.
Bishop Ludden head coach Pat Donnelly announced that he will step down at season’s end, to be replaced by Gallagher Driscoll. It had also seen its top player, Mika Adams-Woods, transfer to a prep school.
Still, plenty of good players like Ed Walser, Joe Connor, Sh’ikem Lee and Jai Smith return to the lineup, and the Gaelic Knights wanted to make a big opening statement last Saturday night when it faced Henninger in the finale of the 14th annual Peppino’s Invitational at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall.
But Ludden lost, 63-59, in a contest where it led by as many as 10 in the first half, only to see things turn around when the Black Knights, a sectional Class AA finalist last winter, went on an 18-3 mid-game run.
Then Ludden, trailing 45-39, reeled off 11 straight points of its own bridging the third and fourth quarters, only to go four-plus minutes without a field goal as Henninger used a 16-3 burst to get a lead it would not relinquish again.
Westhill is, of course, the reigning state Class B champions, and got their championship rings at the school’s Nov. 25 “Warrior Madness” event.
Ironically, the Warriors would, at OCC, face Canton (Section X) in a rematch of the 2017 state final in Binghamton, and while it was a bit less lopsided, Westhill won again by a comfortable 58-49 margin.
The key moment came in the second quarter when the Warriors broke out of a 19-19 tie with the Golden Bears with a 10-0 run. The lead got as big as 16 in the second half and Canton could not put together a sustained scoring run.
Zechariah Brown put up 15 points, adding seven rebounds. Holden Carroll, the game MVP, had a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds, adding six assists as Sean Dadey got 12 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and four steals. John Geer added nine points.
A night earlier at OCC, Westhill had undergone its first real test of the season against Section II’s Saratoga Springs, but passed that test, defeating the Blue Streaks 60-50.
Held to four points in the first quarter, the Warriors turned it around by outscoring Saratoga 23-8 the rest of the half. Eventually, Westhill built a 44-30 lead, hanging on thanks to 24 points from Dadey, 10 of them free throws. John Geer had 11 points as Charlie Bolesh got nine points and Zechariah Brown had eight points.
However, that win carried a price tag. In the third quarter, senior Owen Matukas suffered an ankle injury that could keep him out several weeks. Bolesh would replace him in the starting lineup.
Before all this, Westhill’s season opener last Wednesday was a 106-22 destruction of Altmar-Parish-Williamstown that saw the Warriors shut out the Rebels in a 34-0 first-quarter blitz.
It continued from there, six players scoring in double figures as Geer and Chris Holt led with 16 points apiece. Dadey had 15 points, with Dan Washburn getting 13 points. Brown and E.J. Zawadzki each got 10 points, just ahead of Holden Carroll (nine points) and Ryan Gilmartin (eight points).
West Genesee had seen Malik Zachery and a strong senior class from 2016-17 depart, but returns highly-touted senior forward Lucas Sutherland and Will Amica to its lineup.
Together, Sutherland and Amica did lots of damage in the Wildcats’ 63-45 victory over Christian Brothers Academy that preceded the Westhill-Canton and Ludden-Henninger showdowns.
Trailing 16-13 after one period, WG turned it around by halftime, grabbing a 31-26 lead, and then proceeded to outscore CBA 21-8 in a decisive third quarter.
All the while, Amica unloaded for 25 points, including three 3-pointers, taking attention away from Sutherland, who still managed 18 points as Jake Wager and Tyler Cook had seven points apiece. On CBA’s side, only Aaron Clendenin (18 points) scored in double figures.
