What the Baldwinsville boys basketball team had done to so many others in a wild month of January – namely, come from behind, or win in the final seconds – was done to them early last week.
Rome Free Academy came to Baker High School last Monday afternoon, and the Black Knights delivered its own bit of late-game magic to knock off the Bees 63-61.
For a long while, the game followed a recent formula quite familiar to B’ville fans, in that again the Bees fell behind and, again, stormed back from a big late-game deficit.
Trailing 49-39 going into the fourth quarter, B’ville finally got its offense on track in the closing minutes, chipping away at RFA’s margin.
Down by four, 59-55, the Bees cut it to one on Nate Ray’s 3-pointer with 16.7 seconds to play. The Black Knights made a pair of free throws to make it 61-58.
Here, J.J. Starling made another star turn. Even though everyone knew he would get the ball and likely shoot from outside, Starling was not fouled – and drained a tying 3-pointer.
But 3.2 seconds remained and, after a time-out, RFA, having to go the length of the court, had Isaac Howard throw it to mid-court, where Isaiah Kelly quickly passed it to Jordan Baldwin.
Before Braden McCard could get over to block it, Baldwin, from the left side, sent a driving one-hander off the glass and through the net as time ran out.
For the game, Starling had put up 28 points, with Ray getting 12 points and Bo Nicholson earning most of his 15 points through three 3-pointers. Damien Call led the Black Knights with 20 points.
B’ville was back in action last Friday to face Fayetteville-Manlius, who at 5-7 had improved plenty from a 2-18 campaign the year before, but still needed some wins to be playoff-eligible.
And for quite a while, this one also threatened to go to the final minutes undecided, but a stepped-up defense and a clutch effort from Nicholson helped the Bees win 67-55.
All through the first half, hot outside shooting allowed F-M to keep pace with B’ville. The Hornets trailed by just two, 38-36, at the break, and stayed within range during the third quarter, too.
Like with everyone else, the Hornets’ aim was to keep Starling from big numbers, and though he did have 23 points, F-M made Starling work hard for those numbers.
Despite all this, B’ville got away by playing tough defense in the final minutes and having Nicholson hit his own baskets on the way to a season-best 21 points.
Dan Fabrizio had nine points, with Nate Ray getting eight points. Charlie Gadsden and Josh Michel each led F-M with 12 points, while Trevor Roe got eight points and Luke Davidson added six points.
Having improved its record to 10-4, B’ville hosts Nottingham Tuesday in advance of a big game next Friday at West Genesee, against whom Starling netted 33 points (16 of them in the fourth quarter) when the Bees won their first meeting 57-52 on Jan. 2.
