With a young, small roster, the Baldwinsville girls basketball team did the best it could to cope with the challenges provided every single night by the area’s top large schools, peaking with that last-second comeback win at Cicero-North Syracuse late in January.
The Bees did enough to return to the Section III Class AA playoffs as a no. 6 seed, and put up a noble effort in Tuesday night’s quarterfinal against no. 3 seed Liverpool, only to take a 54-43 defeat to the Warriors.
They had met twice in the regular season, Liverpool claiming a 45-33 win early in December and then going to B’ville to win 69-46 in mid-January.
Since these teams knew each other so well, perhaps it figured that the first half was close and low-scoring. The Bees’ defensive pressure was mostly effective, yet it could not take full advantage of this work with baskets on the other end.
Trailing 19-12 at the break, the Bees more than doubled its total during the third quarter, only to have the Warriors match it and stay out in front 35-28.
Ultimately, Liverpool put the game away by having three players score in double figures, Amanda Barnell and Lexi Emmi each scoring 16 points as Karylssa Shifflett got 11 points.
For B’ville, only Sydney Huhtala, with 17 points, scored in double figures, Courtney Clute adding eight points as Sue Johnson got seven points and Alex Bednarczyk was held to five points. Mary Young had four points and Hannah Mimas got just a single field goal.
Finishing with a 9-11 record, the Bees could take comfort knowing that Katie Pascale and Jordan Roy, two key players sidelined earlier this winter, could return in 2019-20, joined by Huhtala, Bednarczyk (both of whom are just finishing their freshman seasons), Mimas and Young. Only Johnson and Clute graduate.
