Week by week, and regardless of whether it won or not, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys basketball team was proving to everyone that its struggles of recent years were far behind them.
The Hornets, who won just twice in 2018-19, improved to 5-4 last Tuesday night with a gritty, come-from-behind effort at Cicero-North Syracuse that resulted in a 56-53 victory over the Northstars.
Even though four wins didn’t seem like a large amount through eight games, it was twice the Hornets’ total from 2018-19 and also included a narrow, last-second defeat to Corcoran on Jan. 3.
Against a C-NS side whose 1-7 start included several close losses of its own, F-M would make several comebacks, the last of them the most important as it scored the game’s final nine points.
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. Both times, the Hornets didn’t let the game away from them.
James Madill, who had a team-high 17 points, and Tyler Roe, who had 10 points, helped keep F-M within range by making big contributions off the bench.
Then, down 53-47 with less than two minutes to play, it was a Luke Davidson 3-pointer that initiated F-M’s final comeback.
Madill converted to make it 53-52, and after C-NS was unable to answer, with 15.5 seconds left Davidson drove to the basket, scored, was fouled and made the ensuing free throw.
Luke Paragon, who had 14 points to lead the Northtstars, could not convert a possible tying basket in the final seconds, and the Hornets had earned another crucial win.
Now it would go and challenge reigning state Class AA champion West Genesee Friday night, and it ended in a 59-47 defeat whose margin did not reflect the way the Wildcats controlled matters.
It was decided in the first three quarters, the Hornets shut down for long stretches and WG building a 52-24 edge. Battling to the end, F-M had Isaac Frechette earn 13 points and Mike Rettinger earn nine points against the Wildcats’ reserves. Will Amica and Kam Jones led the Wildcats with 12 points apiece.
Meanwhile, the F-M girls basketball team continued to battle through the most difficult portion of its schedule, having to face both of last year’s Section III Class AA finalists in the same week.
First, it was Cicero-North Syracuse paying a visit last Tuesday, and it was close for a while before the Northstars got away late to top the Hornets 63-41.
A productive second quarter by F-M nearly erased an early 18-9 deficit, but over the course of the second half C-NS’s defense gradually wore the Hornets down as it only got three points in the fourth quarter.
Before those late struggles, Lexie Roe put up 20 points, including four 3-pointers, with Lily Fish adding 11 points.
Now F-M would deal with three-time defending sectional champion West Genesee on Friday, and led again by Roe and Fish, it nearly caught the Wildcats before taking a 56-54 loss.
All game long, the two sides traded scoring bursts. Roe poured in a game-high 19 points and Fish had 16 points, but no one else could do much, Ava Angello and Lilly Coleman each having six points.
Yet WG withstood all of it and held on at the end by possessing a bit more depth buoyed by the 16 points Meredith James put up. Cunningham had 14 points, with DiPaola getting eight points, Coyne seven points and Julia Logana six points.
F-M teams meet a pair of city foes this week – first Nottingham, then Henninger.
