While a long season still lay ahead, the Baldwinsville boys basketball team made quite an opening impression.
The Bees tipped off 2019-20 on Tuesday night by holding off long-time power Jamesville-DeWitt 63-56 at Baker High School gym, mixing in the expected contributions from sophomore sensation J.J. Starling with plenty of help from his teammates.
B’ville has eagerly awaited this winter ever since getting eliminated by West Genesee in last February’s Section III Class AA semifinal – and then seeing the Wildcats go all the way to the state championship.
Carrying ambitions of its own, the Bees return Starling, a singular talent already drawing scholarship offers from the University of Washington, among other suitors.
To fully test itself, B’ville opened with J-D, the reigning sectional Class A champions returning most of its starting lineup, including the brother tandem of Payton and Preston Shumpert.
Cold at the outset, the Bees managed just one field goal (a Starling 3-pointer) in the first six minutes and fell behind 13-3, but then proceeded to outscore the Red Rams 26-8 the rest of the half, including a 14-0 run that put B’ville in front for good.
Starling carried the attack early with everything from aggressive drives to pull-up 3-pointers with the occasional breakaway dunk, but the Bees didn’t get control until Dan Fabrizio poured in eight points during the second quarter.
Fabrizio hit two more 3-pointers in the third period as the Bees’ lead stretched to 42-29. But with Starling contained, J-D fought back, Payton Shumpert accounting for most of the Rams’ offense on his way to a game-high 29 points.
But with the margin cut to four, 54-50, Bo Nicholson hit a crucial 3-pointer from the corner with 2:22 left. Nicholson added two late free throws to help seal the win as Starling finished with 23 points and Fabrizio got 17 points.
B’ville had little time to savor this win, for J-D was just the first of three games in four days, and by the end of it the Bees knew that the formula used to win the opener would be needed against other foes.
Hosting New Hartford on Thursday night, the Bees stumbled in a 63-59 defeat to the Spartans made even more frustrating by the fact that it roared out to a 21-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.
New Hartford ate into that margin, only trailing 34-29 at halftime, and then traded baskets until it moved out in front in the fourth quarter, the Spartans led by K Wheat (19 points) and C Oczkowski (13 points).
Starling was unstoppable, earning 35 points (including five 3-pointers), but Fabrizio was held to a single 3-pointer and no other B’ville player hit double figures, with Chase Trombley getting nine points and Nicholson adding eight points.
Just 24 hours later, the Bees were at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall, battling Central Square in the Peppino’s Invitational, and proving that it could recover from a setback as it defeated the Redhawks 62-51.
Hot from the outside, Starling hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter, powering B’ville to a 14-2 lead, Central Square limited to just one field goal in the game’s first seven minutes.
For the rest of the game, the Redhawks had to try and chase B’ville down. When it got within six, 32-26, in the third quarter, the Bees answered with seven straight points.
And when it got to 42-35 in the final period, Starling’s 3-pointer stretched things out again. All told, Starling had 26 points, while Fabrizio earned all 11 of his points in the second half. Nicholson got eight points and Ben Bifulco had six points.
B’ville has another big test against Bishop Grimes Monday night before visiting Cicero-North Syracuse in its SCAC Metro division opener next Friday.
