Seven victories in a row, all by double-digit margins, had the West Genesee girls basketball team in prime position to offer a successful defense of its Section III Class AA championship.
For the sectional tournament, the Wildcats draw the no. 2 seed behind top seed Cicero-North Syracuse, with whom it split two regular-season meetings. On Tuesday, WG faces no. 7 seed Rome Free Academy in the sectional quarterfinals, with the winner to face Central Square or Baldwinsville in the semifinals.
As it turned out, though, a Wildcats basketball team already had a win over C-NS in the post-season – only it came on the boys side last Friday night as WG, the no. 8 seed, beat the no. 9 seed Northstars 66-55 in the opening round of the sectional tournament.
At stake was a shot at 20-0, top-seeded Liverpool in the quarterfinals, and perhaps the post-season nerves affected the Wildcats early as C-NS led through most of the first quarter.
Liam Barry came off the bench and turned things around. Hitting three 3-pointers in the second quarter, Barry pushed WG in front, and connected twice more beyond the arc in the third quarter to push his season-high total to 15 points.
Never trailing in the second half, the Wildcats had an answer every time C-NS tried to catch up, especially in the fourth quarter, when it held the Northstars without a field goal for more than five minutes and then closed strong, hitting nine of its last 10 free throws.
Lucas Sutherland worked hard for his game-high 20 points. Of Will Amica’s 13 points, 11 of them came in the second half as Kam Jones added seven points.
WG’s game with Liverpool follows Tuesday’s quarterfinal between no. 4 seed Bishop Ludden, who has a first-round bye, and no. 5 seed Henninger, who ousted Baldwinsville in the first round. The winners of these two games meet each other next Sunday at SRC Arena in the sectional semifinals.
Just before the sectional tournament, WG ‘s girls team got its seventh win in a row against visiting Baldwinsville, nearly flawless in the first half as it put away the Bees 55-43.
Though it was a bit closer than the first meeting on Jan. 26 that the Wildcats won 54-35, it was only because the Bees rose up in the second half and finally started to play well on both ends.
Before that, though, WG smothered B’ville on the defensive side and rode hot outside shooting to a 20-7 lead through one quarter and a 37-16 margin by halftime.
Leading that early surge, Mya Case hit on five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points overall. Madison Smith’s 12 points came from four 3-pointers as Catie Cunningham got 11 points and Mackenzie Smith had seven points. For B’ville, only Jordan Roy, with 11 points, scored in double figures.
Meanwhile, WG’s boys team went to Baldwinsville with a chance to deny the Bees a sectional playoff berth – but could not pull it off, taking a 76-67 defeat.
Prior to that, the Wildcats had won four of five games, one of them a 79-65 home win over B’ville Jan. 26. Now the stakes were a lot higher, yet WG put itself in position to end the Bees’ season with a strong second quarter that produced a 34-28 halftime lead.
But a combination of urgency and desperation fed B’ville as it outscored the Wildcats 27-14 in the third quarter to go in front for good. Casey Pluff, with four 3-pointers, led the Bees with 19 points as Jake Marshall got 17 points, with J.J. Starling and Alec Williams earning 12 points apiece.
WG could not answer that surge, though Amica finished with 18 points and Sutherland had 16 points. Jones got 11 points, just ahead of Christian Rossi (nine points) and Jack McLane (eight points).
Against Binghamton a night later, WG needed a victory to clinch a winning record for 2017-18, and got it, defeating the Patriots 62-55 by putting up a big fourth quarter to overcome a 43-35 deficit.
Outscored 20-8 in the third period, the Wildcats rebounded as, again, Sutherland led the way, earning 20 points overall. Amica contributed 13 points as Barry had nine points. Rossi had seven points and McLane contributed six points.
