For the second time in the event’s nine-year history, the Central region team girls basketball team emerged victorious from the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Summer Hoops Festival – with more than a little help from some area standouts.
Cicero-North Syracuse teammates Jessica Cook and Julia Rowe both played for Central, who went a perfect 5-0 in the three-day tournament held last weekend in Johnson City, near Binghamton.
Held each summer in early August, the Summer Hoops Fest mirrors the format of the former Empire State Games as all-star teams from all the regions of New York State face each other. There are three games of pool play, followed by semifinals and finals.
Cook and Rowe were named to a Central region squad that finished second in this same event in 2018 and aimed to go one step further and claim the title it last earned in the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2011.
The opener on Friday night pitted Central against Buffalo, and it won 79-63, with everyone on Central’s 12-player roster getting on the scoreboard, including Cook, who finished with 10 points, and Rowe.,
In the first of two games on Saturday, Central cranked up its defense against Capital District, pulling away to a 50-29 victory. Then it beat Southern Tier 76-69 later that afternoon, helped by its inside game as Cook got 16 points and Bishop Ludden’s Amarah Streiff poured in 18 points.
Sunday morning’s semifinal had Central trailing Rochester 25-24 at halftime, but its depth and balance made the difference in the second half of a 60-46 win, with Lexie Roe (Fayetteville-Manlius) and Kaia Henderson (New Hartford) each producing 11 points.
Back in the championship game for the second year in a row, Central met Hudson Valley. Again, it was down one at halfime (31-30), but Cook took over in the third quarter with 16 consecutive points.
All told, Cook had 24 points, Streiff got 14 points (11 in the second half) and Catie Cunningham (West Genesee) added 19 points, and Central defeated Hudson Valley 73-53 for the championship.
In the boys edition of the BCANY Summer Hoops Festival, Baldwinsville star J.J. Starling helped lead Central to a 3-2 record and a semifinals berth.
After a narrow 87-86 loss to Mid-Hudson on Friday, Central’s boys team defeated North Country on Saturday morning and then outscored Suffolk County (Long Island) 82-75.
In the semifinals on Sunday morning, Central lost a 79-64 decision to Hudson Valley, who eventually dropped the championship game 80-72 to the same Suffolk side Central had beaten a day earlier.
