The Fayetteville-Manlius girls basketball team finished the regular season 10-10 and drew the no. 8 seed in Class AA, which meant a first-round game against no. 9 seed Nottingham, with whom it split two regular-season games.
In the third and most important encounter, the Hornets beat the Bulldogs 56-43, almost entirely on the basis of what it did during a memorable third quarter.
Prior to that, F-M was tentative and paid for that approach, watching Nottingham take a 24-18 lead by halftime. But in the third period, the Hornets could not miss, a string of shots combining with strong defense for a decisive 27-4 blitz.
Each of F-M’s five starters made a major contribution as Lexy Gray led that charge, finishing with 19 points, seven blocks and four rebounds.
Lexie Roe had 11 points, with Alexandra Vinci adding 10 points and four rebounds. Lily Fish got eight points, five assists and four rebounds as Alexis Schneider earned six rebounds.
F-M was coming off a stretch of three games in as many days Feb. 8-10, where it beat New Hartford and Baldwinsville, with a loss to West Genesee in between.
Another game followed last Monday at Utica Proctor, with the Hornets prevailing 61-37 as it shut down the Raiders throughout the first half, building a 27-12 advantage.
Continuing to pull away, F-M got inside production from Schneider, who had 18 points, while Lexie Roe hit three 3-pointers on her way to 17 points overall. Lexy Gray and Lily Fish each had eight points as Alexandra Vinci added six points.
With the win over Nottingham, F-M advances to Tuesday’s quarterfinal against top seed Cicero-North Syracuse, with the winner to face Auburn or Liverpool in this weekend’s semifinals.
Moving to the Class B sectional tournament, Bishop Grimes, buoyed by its upset of Westhill early last week, moved the no. 7 seed in the sectional Class B bracket, alongside no. 2 seed Adirondack, who was 16-0, but not as tested as the Cobras.
So if Grimes could get past no. 10 seed Hannibal in the first round, it would like its chances moving forward, and while the Warriors made it quite difficult from start to finish, the Cobras pulled out a 64-59 victory.
A solid first half left Grimes in front 29-21, but when the pace picked up in the third quarter, Hannibal inched closer, led by Mackenzie Mattison, who poured in 27 points to pass 1,000 for her career, joining teammate
Late in the fourth quarter, the Warriors got within three, but Grimes was able to close it out, getting 17 points from Abby Wilkinson and 12 points from Sarah Snavlin, all from four 3-pointers.
Maria Naylor’s 10 points included a pair of 3-pointers as Jenna Sloan and Lora Marial each got nine points, Marial hitting on three 3-pointers. Brianna Squier was held to five points, but she helped hold Hannibal’s other 1,000-point scorer, Katie Pitcher, to just eight points.
As if all of this wasn’t exciting enough, a day later Adirondack did get beat, 66-46, by no. 15 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Suddenly, Grimes has a home game in the sectional quarterfinals on Tuesday against VVS, and if it beats the Red Devils, the Cobras face South Jefferson or Utica-Notre Dame this weekend in the semifinal round.
