One unmistakable pattern has emerged in the West Genesee boys basketball team’s quest to end a 25-year Section III championship drought – namely, its difficulty against Syracuse city school opponents.
Each of the Wildcats’ three defeats this season have come against city foes – overtime losses to Corcoran and Henninger, and then last Tuesday night’s game at Nottingham, where the Wildcats fell to the Bulldogs 75-70.
These teams had played a close one at a similar pace on Dec. 21 in Camillus, and though WG won it 75-68, Nottingham was confident it could turn that result around when the two sides met again.
Indeed, the rematch was close all the way through, with the game tied 45-45 going to the fourth quarter, when, led by Mazi Jackson and Jaden Ezomo, the Bulldogs pulled out in front for good.
Jackson finished with 34 points, a career high, that included three 3-pointers as Ezomo produced 28 points. Both topped WG’s Will Amica, who led his side with 25 points as Lucas Sutherland got 17 points and Jack McLane had 12 points. Christian Rossi had nine points.
When cold weather closed school Thursday, it postponed WG’s trip to Baldwinsville until Monday, so the Wildcats were inactive until Saturday’s makeup of a snowed-out Jan. 19 game against Victor (Section V) at Onondaga Community College.
Burning to play again after the Nottingham loss, the Wildcats dominated Victor, bashing the Blue Devils 77-43 as it built most of its margin during the first half, roaring out in front 40-19.
The duo of Sutherland and Amica nearly matched Victor by themselves, Amica earning 22 points and Sutherland adding 17 points. John Benson added nine points as McLane got six points.
The tough part for WG about making up the Baldwinsville game Monday was that it would come just 24 hours before the much-anticipated visit from 16-0 Corcoran, a rematch of the Cougars’ Jan. 8 overtime over the Wildcats when both teams were undefeated.
West Genesee’s girls basketball team, no. 16 in the state Class AA rankings, had a great week, and it went well beyond its own results.
The Wildcats prevailed 70-51 over Nottingham last Tuesday night in Camillus, bolting out to a 19-9 lead by the end of the first quarter and nursing that margin the rest of the way, overcoming 19 points by the Bulldogs’ Namaya Williams.
Mackenzie Smith, with 13 points, four steals and four rebounds, led a well-balanced attack. Catie Cunningham got nine rebounds as she and Madison Smith both earned 11 points, with Kaitlyn Walker adding 10 points and nine rebounds. Aleysha Castanon had seven points.
While that was going on, state no. 15-ranked Cicero-North Syracuse took a stunning 64-63 defeat at home to Baldwinsville, surrendering a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter and losing it when Sydney Huhtala hit a 3-pointer at the horn.
That proved quite relevant to WG beyond the fact that its main challenger for sectional Class AA supremacy took a setback. That was because B’ville would face the Wildcats next on Friday night.
WG had bashed the Bees 71-39 four weeks earlier, but C-NS had done the same to B’ville its first time around, and the Wildcats were not interested in B’ville pulling off another unexpected payback.
In perhaps its finest all-around game of the season, WG again won big over the Bees, 76-43, turning a modest advantage into something much more when it erupted for 33 points in the second quarter, mostly on a deluge of 3-pointers.
The Wildcats connected 10 times beyond the arc, five of them by Mackenzie Smith, whose 23 points inched her within 31 of the 1,000-point milestone.
Julia Logana stepped up for 12 points, while Madison Smith had 11 points. Castanon finished with eight points as Walker and Cunningham had six points apiece.
