Though it’s still far too early to tell whether the Baldwinsville boys basketball team is heading toward a special season, the signs point toward it.
In a raucous, exciting home opener last Tuesday night at Baker High School, the Bees, without Jake Marshall in the lineup, somehow overcame a massive second-half deficit to stun Liverpool 69-66.
The neighborhood rivalry between B’ville and Liverpool is intense enough, but the Warriors’ back-to-back Section III titles and run to the 2018 state Class AA championship only added to the meaning of this game.
And even if Liverpool, with four new starters in its lineup, had struggled to an 0-3 start, it still knew that a win at B’ville could quickly turn things around.
Short-handed since Marshall was injured in warm-ups, the Bees were in trouble from the outset as the Warriors controlled the first half, and built a 37-22 lead. Even when the Bees started to make some strides in the third quarter, Liverpool did enough to maintain a 51-41 edge with one period left.
Those last eight minutes turned it all around, though. Try as it could, the Warriors were unable to consistently handle B’ville’s press or make key baskets to answer the furious charge from the hosts.
And this happened despite Kyle Butler’s new career mark of 29 points, gained from five 3-pointers, with help from Nick Klein, who got 12 points. Matt Senecal, Jacob Works and Kyle Caves had six points apiece.
Two players carried B’ville down the stretch, as J.J. Starling finished with 23 points and Cam Weatherly had 18 points. Eric Casey (nine points) and Max Dec (eight points) offered help.
Now B’ville would have to guard against a letdown from this landmark win as it ventured to Henninger Friday night, with the winner going to 2-0 in Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division play.
Still without Marshall, but with some gigantic efforts from Starling, Weatherly and reserve Chase Trombley, the Bees pulled away in the second half and bashed the Black Knights 93-69.
Casey, starting in Marshall’s place, had eight points in the first quarter, but left the game with a facial injury. Then Starling, after a scoreless opening period, took over.
Hitting a trio of 3-pointers and talking back to a Henninger student section barking at him, Starling got 14 points in the second period and pushed the Bees to a 37-31 halftime lead.
But it wasn’t until the third quarter that B’ville got away, going on a 21-6 run that featured, among other things, Trombley, whose own string of 3-pointers gave him 14 points overall.
Down the stretch, Starling worked his total to 29 points and Sunday Joshua had six late points to give him 10 for the night. And Weatherly finished it off, feasting at the foul line as he hit 14 of 16 free throws to account for most of his 20 points.
B’ville found itself tied for first in the SCAC Metro with West Genesee and Corcoran, and would host Nottingham Tuesday before a Friday-night visit to Cicero-North Syracuse.
