Four undefeated basketball teams from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool charged into Friday night’s highly-anticipated doubleheader, but in the end two particular players stood out.
Amani Free, while surpassing a career milestone, pushed the girls Northstars to a 49-35 victory, while in the boys game Charles Pride’s singular effort led the boys Warriors as it won by a score of 82-53.
The girls game was first, with C-NS already placed within the state Class AA top 10 (no. 9, to be precise) and off to a 3-0 start as Liverpool, who won its first five games, sneaked into the the no. 25 spot in that same state poll.
Right from the start, it was sloppy and uneven, with a pair of strong defenses forcing turnovers and bad passes. But it was the Warriors’ offense facing the bigger struggles as it did not get a field goal until the game was nearly six minutes old.
Each side had to deal with limited playing time for a key player. C-NS’s freshman forward, Jessica Cook, went to the bench with two fouls in the opening minutes and would get limited to just one field goal all night.
Yet Liverpool’s second-leading scorer, Kyra Grimshaw, also dealt with foul trouble and would only record a pair of free throws, putting more pressure on her teammates to make up for her lost production.
Jenna Wike and Amanda Barnell tried to do so, Wike producing 15 points and five steals as Barnell got 14 points and six rebounds, but they did so in catch-up mode.
The Northstars established a 21-7 lead midway through the second quarter and nursed that margin the rest of the way, never letting the Warriors get closer than 10 on two different occasions.
Largely, that was due to Free, the senior guard who, in a variety of ways, hurt Liverpool with strong moves to the basket that led to field goals and 10 successful free throws.
All told, Free had 25 points, and with that total surpassed 1,000 points for her career, which includes C-NS and junior season spent at Long Island Lutheran.
A packed crowd was in place by the time the 8-0 C-NS boys and 5-0 Liverpool took to the court. The Northstars had passed many tests on its way to surpassing its 2016-17 win total, but the reigning Section III Class AA champion Warriors were primed to go, and controlled the game from the opening tip.
Dictating the tempo and shooting well, Liverpool had a 15-2 lead before the game was four minutes old. Even when C-NS settled down late in the first quarter, the Warriors put up five straight points to create a 25-10 edge, capped by Nas Johnson’s 3-pointer.
But the main story was the way Pride took apart C-NS’s defenses. In his first five outings this season, Pride had averaged less than 12 points per game, though having a deep rotation and lots of contributors assured that Pride didn’t need to put up big numbers.
All of that changed on this night, though. The first half alone featured four 3-pointers from Pride and a clip for the highlight reel when he hit a contested breakaway dunk.
By halftime, Liverpool had a 43-22 lead and Pride, with 20 points, nearly had matched the Northstars all by himself. The show continued early in the second half with three more 3-pointers, some from far beyond the arc and one that featured a crossover dribble that left a C-NS defender with no chance to react.
Each of Pride’s 31 points were recorded in just 2 1/2 quarters. Johnson had 12 points, with Jake Piseno adding seven points and Alan Willmes six points. Each of the 12 Warriors players that saw action got at least one field goal.
By contrast, no Northstars player reached double figures. Lukas Merluzzi, Alex Gray and Justin DelVecchio led with eight points apiece, Merluzzi adding six rebounds. Jaysaun Gunn (seven points) and Kyle Cody (six points) also made modest contributions as Omar Mere earned five rebounds.
