Just one more victory is all that stands between the Westhill boys basketball team and an eighth Section III Class B title in the last 10 years.
The top-seeded Warriors, off convincing early-round sectional wins over Skaneateles and Cazenovia, went back to SRC Arena for Saturday’s sectional semifinal against no. 5 seed Homer, who had knocked out Marcellus and Oneida to get this far.
It was yet another regular-season rematch, with Westhill having beat the Trojans 54-44 in early January. Here, though, it didn’t prove as close, the Warriors taking a while to find its best form, but once it did, Homer got left far behind in a 60-39 decision.
Much of the first quarter was closely fought, and the Trojans were finding success with an aggressive approach, keeping the game tied at 15-15 until Zechariah Brown completed a three-point play as time ran out.
Westhill never trailed again, but also leaned too much on Brown and Sean Dadey in the early stages as they combined for 26 of the Warriors’ 31 points in the first half.
It wasn’t until the attack diversified, and the defense adjusted to the tight whistles in the early going, that the Warriors seized control, ultimately going on an 11-0 run that covered most of the third quarter to leave the Trojans behind.
Dadey, who sat out the fourth quarter, finished with 21 points and seven rebounds. Brown had a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds as Owen Matukas stepped up with 10 points, four assists and four rebounds. John Geer had seven points.
Then Westhill watched as no. 3 seed Chittenango rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat no. 2 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 69-62 in overtime in the other semifinal, the Bears repeating its win over the Red Devils in the same round one year ago.
So next Sunday’s title game at 3:30 at the Carrier Dome is a rematch of the 2017 final, where Westhill handled Chittenango on the way to a state championship. They met twice in this regular season, each side winning once.
