For three years, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball team chased West Genesee in the race for area Class AA supremacy, and could not catch them.
Now a different team, Baldwinsville, stood in the way of the Northstars, and the Bees brought its 12-0 record and no. 14 state Class AA ranking to C-NS last Friday for the first of two regular-season showdowns.
And it proved memorable, with C-NS withstanding all of B”ville’s efforts and, with a timely late run and contributions beyond junior center Jessica Cook, it handed the Bees its first defeat of the season in a 50-45 decision.
B’ville was effective for most of the game in limiting the Northstars’ production outside of Cook and, in the second quarter, C-NS’s early lead went away, the Bees up 24-19 at the break.
Cook would finish with 20 points, many of them in the third quarter to help C-NS regain the lead, but this didn’t discourage the Bees, either.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Bees zoomed back in front, 40-35, only to have senior point guard Katie Pascale go to the bench for a long stretch, which proved decisive.
C-NS countered with a 10-0 run to take the lead for good. Alexandra Miller hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, part of her eight points in the fourth quarter that, along with Mackenzie White’s 11 points, helped the Northstars pull it out.
On B’ville’s side, Sydney Huhtala gained 15 points, while Jordan Roy had eight points. Ola Bednarczyk finished with seven points and Kyrah Wilbur got seven points.
C-NS arrived at this game with plenty of momentum, generated by last Tuesday’s 46-32 win over West Genesee in their first encounter since the 2019 sectional final.
Having seen Mackenzie and Madison Smith graduate, the Wildcats were still 9-3 going into this game, but lacked the combination of firepower and defensive prowess it had enjoyed in recent years.
To that end, the Northstars’ defense shut WG down for long stretches of the first half, which allowed C-NS to weather its own early stuggles and lead 20-11 at the break.
Even as the Wildcats improved in the second half, the Northstars continued to build its margin, Cook putting up 19 points and getting ample support, too.
Alita Carey-Santangelo finished with nine points, while White had eight points and Julia Rowe had six points. Meredith James led WG with 10 points, but C-NS held Catie Cunningham to seven points.
While all this was going on, Liverpool looked to get on track after going 3-7 in the first half of the regular season, and had an encouraging effort in last Tuesday’s 59-29 win over Henninger.
Starting with a 22-5 first-quarter charge, the Warriors saw Karlyssa Shifflett hit five 3-pointers to account for most of her 17 points.
Close behind her, Naveah Wingate had 14 points and nine rebounds, while Melaina Nappa also had 14 points, adding seven rebounds and three assists.
As a follow-up on Friday night, Liverpool defeated Corcoran 60-44, this time with Wingate leading the way as she earned 21 points. Michelle Lonczak had nine points, with Sarah Miles adding eight points, Victoria Morgan seven points and Sophie Sageer six points.
Naveah Wingate and Melaina Nappa each had 14 points, Wingate getting nine rebounds and Nappa seven rebounds as Sarah Miles earned nine rebounds
