Back on Dec. 7, the Liverpool boys basketball team had to hold on in the final seconds to defeat its rivals from Cicero-North Syracuse by a single basket, 59-56.
Since then, the two sides have gone on completely different paths, with the Warriors earning a string of impressive and dramatic victories over the likes of West Genesee and Corcoran, while the Northstars were still in search of its first win.
And that remained the case after last Friday night’s game at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall, where Liverpool again found a way to win in the final seconds to push past Fayetteville-Manlius 57-55.
Nearly a week had passed since Romeo Clarke’s twisting last-second jumper had stunned Corcoran, and perhaps a sense of contentment hit the Warriors because, once more against F-M, it had to work from behind.
Solid early production had the Hornets out in front, 18-13, through one period, and for a majority of the game it kept that margin as Ethan Page, with 16 points, and Jack Nucerino, with 13 points, led the way.
Yet it could not put away Liverpool and, clinging to a 55-54 lead as time wound down, the Hornets fouled Jack Pento. Though Pento missed the free throw, Jacob Works got the rebound, converted, was fouled – and converted the three-point play with six seconds left.
F-M was unable to answer it, and the Warriors escaped, mostly leaning on Works, whose 22 points topped all scorers Kyle Caves finished with nine points, while Pento gained eight points and Josh Young had six points.
Contrasting this was what happened to C-NS as it hosted Henninger, the Northstars seeing its offense shut down for long stretches of a 59-38 defeat to the Black Knights.
Henninger entered the game nursing its own four-game skid, and for a half C-NS seemed intent on making it worse, playing solid defense and establishing a 26-24 advantage.
Then the Northstars almost got shut out in the third quarter, managing a single free throw. While that went on, the Black Knights jumped out in front 40-27, never to get caught.
Unable to overcome its prolonged drought, C-NS still got 13 points from Brian Bonin, with Luke Paragon and Brayden McLean earning eight points apiece. Tong Mading led Henninger with 21 points.
As the Northstars appear in East Syracuse Minoa’s holiday tournament this weekend, Liverpoool would go to a similar tournament at Rome Free Academy, meeting Colonie on Friday and Albany’s Green Tech a day later.
