Within the span of a single week, the Baldwinsville boys basketball team wanted to chart its own progress while finding out, up-close, just how good both of its closest neighbors were.
Of the two games, the one that looked more enticing was last Tuesday’s home battle with Cicero-North Syracuse, but the Bees could not take advantage of the Northstars’ return from a long respite as it lost by a score of 71-63.
After a surprising 8-0 start (more wins that it had in all of 2016-17), C-NS lost to undefeated Liverpool on Dec. 22. Then it did not play again until arriving in B’ville, a span of 18 days without a game.
But if the Bees expected rust from the Northstars, it guessed wrong because the Northstars’ offense was sharp from the outset, even as B’ville played well, too, and inched into a 39-34 lead by halftime.
Most of that margin vanished by the time it reached the fourth quarter, and like many other times this season C-NS closed strong, outscoring the Bees 22-14 in those last eight minutes.
Casey Pluff led B’ville with 16 points, most of it from four 3-pointers. Jacob Marshall had 14 points, with Jon Starling adding 12 points and Eric Casey getting nine points.
Jaysaun Gunn paced the Northstars, earning 21 points and six assists. Omar Mere had 11 points, four rebounds and four steals, with Alex Gray (10 points, three rebounds, three assists) and A.J. Forney (nine points) close behind.
This was not what B’ville wanted when it planned to venture to Liverpool Friday night to face the 10-0, state no. 9-ranked defending Section III Class AA champions.
Winter weather postponed that game, though, and B’ville would still have two clashes with the Warriors ahead along with three games this week against Henninger, New Hartford and Corcoran.
