A year after it narrowly missed taking the Section III Class AA championship from West Genesee at the Carrier Dome, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball team gets another opportunity.
The title-game rematch was set up by Sunday’s semifinals at SRC Arena, where the top-seeded Northstars got 29 points from Jessica Cook in a 66-56 win over Nottingham, achieved right after Liverpool saw its upset bid thwarted by the Wildcats in a 77-62 decision.
Though C-NS had handled Nottingham 69-37 the last time they met early in February, the first game between them on Jan. 8 was much closer, a 53-44 Northstars win, and the semifinal reflected that first encounter far more than the second one.
Nottingham got four early 3-pointers from Amaya Williams and Naviae Williams to move out in front, and then regained the lead 24-23 midway through the second quarter.
But C-NS closed the half on a 10-2 run, sparked by Mackenzie White’s 3-pointer as Jessica Cook recorded 11 first-half points and Julia Rowe, with nine points, was close behind.
Up 33-26 at halftime, the Northstars went back to Cook, who recorded her team’s first 10 points of the third quarter, but C-NS didn’t assert full control until Cook got some help.
Aside from Rowe, who finished with 13 points, Isabella Kingsley, Brandi Feeney, Aniah Ingram all came off the bench to produce crucial points to withstand any Nottingham comeback.
Then three of the Bulldogs’ players fouled out in the final period, including Amaya Williams, whose 25 points had kept her team within range, but without her C-NS was able to finish it off, even though Cook fouled out, too.
Before all this, it was Liverpool trying to reverse two regular-season defeats to West Genesee, one of them a 63-58 thriller in Camillus where the Warriors pushed the Wildcats, who were missing Mackenzie Smith that night.
Both Mackenzie and Madison Smith were present for this edition, and it was Madison who tried to put Liverpool away early.
WG hit its first four shots, all 3-pointers, and Madison Smith had two of them, but didn’t stop there, adding another 3-pointer plus two other field goals for 11 points in the first quarter.
Liverpool responded well to all this, staying aggressive and getting the Wildcats into some early foul trouble, though it was unable to convert on all of its free throws.
Only down 21-18 early in the second quarter, the Warriors saw WG go on a 10-0 run, and trailed 38-27 at halftime, having seen Madison Smith amass 19 points before the break.
Liverpool was one sustained run from making things interesting, but it was the Wildcats who put together the decisive push early in the third quarter, fueled by Mackenzie Smith, who scored 10 points in a span of less than three minutes.
All told, Mackenzie got 15 points in that period, one more than the entire Liverpool roster, creating a 64-43 margin that proved safe.
Liverpool battled to the end, with Victoria Morgan earning 20 points and Lexi Emmi adding 17 points. However, Amanda Barnell was held to four points as she proved the focal point of WG’s defensive effort.
It ended with Madison Smith earning 28 points and Mackenzie Smith getting 22 points. Now they will be the target of C-NS, who split two regular-season meetings with the Wildcats, with the third proving the most important.
