In a frantic finish to the regular season, the Skaneateles boys basketball team had to beat Cazenovia last Monday just to get into the Section III Class B playoffs – and did so.
Then the Lakers found out that, as the no. 16 seed, it would have to beat no. 17 seed Solvay in order to get a chance at challenging top seed and defending state champion Westhill.
Unlike the Cazenovia game, this didn’t prove too difficult.
Still fired up by that win, Skaneateles jumped all over a Bearcats team it lost to twice in three regular-season meetings, leading 24-4 after one period and cruising from there to a 77-47 victory.
Justin McClanahan and Tommy Reed both finished with 18 points, while Jack Canty had 15 points. Jack Whirtley emerged with a season-best 10 points as Jeremy Castle got all nine of his points from three 3-pointers. For Solvay only Jaimen Bliss, with 13 points, got to double figures.
And now Skaneateles got its shot at Westhill on Saturday afternoon. Back on Feb. 1, the Warriors had prevailed 68-49, but now the stakes were a lot higher and all the pressure was on the reigning state champions to put the Lakers away.
But if Westhill felt any tension, it quickly dissipated as, helped by 13 3-pointers, it put away Skaneateles 81-53, steadily firing away and continuing to convert until it had built a 70-39 lead by the end of the third quarter.
Battling to the end, the Lakers had Canty hit three 3-pointers of his own and earn 18 points overall. But McClanahan cooled off, getting just four points as Castle and Nick Wamp each had eight points and Reed got six points.
Of those 14 3-pointers from Westhill, five were by Sean Dadey, who led all scorers with 21 points. Four more came from Zechariah Brown as he got 14 points and three came from John Geer on his way to 13 points. Owen Matukas (11 points) also hit double figures.
Having finished 9-13 overall, Skaneateles will see six seniors depart, including McClanahan, Castle and Kenny Peterson, but return the likes of Canty, Reed , Whirtleyand Wamp for 2018-19.
