Mere seconds away from a pair of important victories on Tuesday night, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys basketball teams both would see those wins snatched away.
In the Warriors’ case, it was Baldwinsville’s star sophomore, J.J. Starling, converting just before the horn to push the Bees past Liverpool 50-49 at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall.
For the Northstars, yet another close contest went against them when Fayetteville-Manlius rallied and scored the game’s final nine points to upend C-NS 56-53.
This was Liverpool’s first game of 2020, and it was trying to bounce back from back-to-back defeats to Section II’s Colonie and Green Tech in a Dec. 27-28 tournament at Rome Free Academy.
To do so, the Warriors had to slow down a 6-2 Baldwinsville side led by Starling, who was coming off scoring 16 fourth-quarter points in a Jan. 3 win over reigning state Class AA champion West Genesee where he had passed the 1,000-point mark.
Up until the very end, Liverpool’s defensive strategy – shut down everyone around Starling – worked quite well. The two sides traded the lead throughout the first half with little separation, and even though Starling had 16 points in the half, the Warriors only trailed by two, 27-25, at the break.
What helped keep Liverpool close was an ability to close out quarters. Jacob Vacco’s 3-pointer beat the first-quarter horn, and Romeo Clarke did the same in the final seconds of the third quarter, reducing B’ville’s lead to 37-35.
The back-and-forth battle raged through the final minutes. Liverpool inched in front, 43-42, only to have Starling hit a 3-pointer and again the Warriors trailed.
Back within one, 48-47, Liverpool got possession with 30 seconds left. Instead of working for a last shot, it instead worked it to Jack Pento, who fired with 20 seconds to play and converted, putting the Warriors up by one.
That left B’ville time to answer. Though Liverpool knew it would go to Starling, he still took a pass in the right corner from Bo Nicholson and worked through several defenders before converting the lay-up just as time expired.
That gave Starling 35 points overall, a far cry from the Warriors’ more balanced effort. Jacob Works and LaTeef Edwards led with 14 points apiece as Clarke added eight points.
All of this came just after the conclusion at C-NS, where the Northstars, who were 1-7 going into the game, had every chance to pull away against a vastly improved F-M side, yet suffered its fourth defeat by four points or less.
C-NS opened the game on a 14-2 run. Even when the Hornets answered with a 16-2 push, the Northstars had a second 12-1 spurt that helped it go to halftime in front 28-23.
Twice in the second half, C-NS pushed its lead back to double digits, up 40-27 in the third quarter and 47-37 with less than six minutes to play. Even as F-M again fought back, the Northstars were up 53-47 after Brian Bonin hit two free throws with 2:15 left.
It was a Luke Davidson 3-pointer that initiated F-M’s final comeback. Twice, C-NS missed on shots to extend its lead and instead, with 15.5 seconds left and his team down 53-52, Davidson drove to the basket, scored, was fouled and made the ensuing free throw.
Luke Paragon, who had 14 points on the night, could not convert a possible tying basket in the final seconds, and the Hornets won, led by Davidson (16 points) and James Madill (17 points). Bonin and Grant Sennett each had 11 points.
Both teams were in action again on Friday and, once again, both sides would have to take defeats.
Liverpool fell to Nottingham in another close one, 69-63 as Mazi Jackson had 26 points for the Bulldogs, while C-NS met another city foe, Corcoran, and lost 79-63. Bonin had 12 points and Kevin Felasco got 11 points, but they were far back of the 26 points put by Cougars star De’Jour Reaves.
