On Sunday afternoon, the girls basketball teams from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool will both take to the court at SRC Arena, vying for spots in the Section III Class AA championship game.
They got there by winning quarterfinal games on Tuesday night, with the top-seeded Northstars getting a brief scare before pulling away to beat Rome Free Academy 57-37 as the no. 3 seed Warriors turned back Baldwinsville 54-43.
The Warriors and Bees 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.
Ahead 19-12 at the break, the Warriors saw B’ville more than doubled its total during the third quarter, but matched it and stayedout in front 35-28.
Ultimately, Liverpool put the game away with an effective, three-pronged attack, Amanda Barnell and Lexi Emmi each finishing with 16 points as Karylssa Shifflett got 11 points.
For B’ville, only Sydney Huhtala, with 17 points, scored in double figures. Courtney Clute added eight points as Sue Johnson got seven points and Alex Bednarczyk was held to five points.
Not far down the road, C-NS was on the court for its first game in 11 days, but there was no rust shown against Rome Free Academy as it dominated on both ends during the first quarter and bolted to a 16-4 advantage.
But the Black Knights didn’t go away, and though it trailed 28-14 at halftime, it proceeded to outscore the Northstars 17-9 in the third quarter, led by Kelsey McCaskill, who finished the night with 13 points.
With its margin trimmed to 37-31, C-NS regrouped and, in the fourth quarter, took over again, mixing in the usual strong inside play of Jessica Cook with hot outside shooting from Alexandra Miller.
Cook gained 23 points, while most of Miller’s 14 points came from four 3-pointers. Julia Rowe had seven points and Brandi Feeney added six points.
The sectional AA semifinals on Sunday start at 2:45 with Liverpool challenging no. 2 seed and two-time defending champion West Genesee, who bashed Corcoran 62-34, with the other semifinal at 4:30 pitting C-NS against no. 4 seed Nottingham, who ousted Fayetteville-Manlius 60-46.
