No matter the circumstances, the Chittenango boys basketball team has found a habit for winning big games at Le Moyne College.
On the same court where it beat Vernon-Verona-Sherrill last February in the Section III Class B semifinals, the Bears conquered reigning state champion Westhill 61-45 on Jan. 14 in the Pathfinder Bank Zebra Classic.
Clearly, Chittenango had taken some encouragement from the narrow last-second defeat it took at Westhill on Dec. 19, and even recent losses to Whitesboro and Bishop Grimes hadn’t dented the Bears’ confidence.
What transpired in the opening minutes of the rematch with the Warriors only made things better. Westhill’s leading scorer, Sean Dadey, left the game with a shoulder injury, not to return.
Without Dadey, the Warriors wilted in the face of Chittenango’s defensive pressure, only scoring three points in the first quarter. And even when Westhill tried to get going, the Bears had an answer, building a 32-18 lead by halftime.
During the third quarter, Westhill focused in on Chittenango star Zach Falkenburg, limiting his touches, but paid for it when Dylan Voutsinas notched 11 of his 18 points, and the Bears maintained a double-digit edge.
Not once in the final period did the Warriors pull within single digits. Falkenburg, steady throughout the game, worked his total to 24 points as both he and Voutsinas outpaced Westhill’s top threats, Zechariah Brown and Holden Carroll, who had 12 points apiece.
Chittenango would play again two days later, hosting Marcellus, and instead of having an inevitable letdown, the Bears shut down the Mustangs and made a bit of history, too, while rolling to a 57-26 victory.
Needing just five points to pass the 1,000-point mark for his career, Falkenburg did so early in the game, and it was stopped so that Falkenburg could get honored with a standing ovation from the home crowd.
Meanwhile, the Chittenango defense suffocated Marcellus, holding them to just two points in the first quarter, a drought from which the visitors could not recover.
Falkenburg finished with 19 points, hitting on five 3-pointers as Voutsinas connected three times beyond the arc on his way to 13 points. Sam Hill added nine points.
Now Chittenango awaited its battle with Cazenovia, who had last Tuesday’s game with Norwich postponed due to bad weather in the Southern Tier.
But then Cazenovia took its own shot at a short-handed Westhill side Thursday night and, in front of the home crowd at Buckley Gym, battled past the Warriors 61-55.
The Lakers jumped out to an 18-5 edge by the end of the first quarter, and even though it cooled off, it still led 24-19 at halftime. And it held up through a tense second half.
Kevin Stalder and Thomas Bragg each finished with 17 points, the pair combining to hit 13 free throws, with Drew Johnson adding 11 points and Matt Regan getting eight points. Zechariah Brown and John Geer led Westhill with 14 points apiece.
This improved the Lakers’ record to 7-4, with both the Chittenango game and a tough one with South Jefferson on Cazenovia’s agenda this week.
