Having long secured its place in the post-season, the Cazenovia boys basketball team’s primary goal was to find its great early-season form before the Section III Class B playoffs.
It helped that 4-14 Altmar-Parish-Williamstown was visiting Buckley Gym Tuesday night, and the Lakers had little trouble subduing the Rebels 75-44.
Prior to the game, Cazenovia honored its seniors – Ryan Romagnoli, Ty Freyer, Keegan Bailey, Mike Parella, Robert Liddell and Brian Roca – and then proceeded to nearly double APW’s total in the first three quarters.
Building a 59-30 advantage, the Lakers had all six of those seniors get on the scoreboard. Freyer had 12 points, with Romagnoli adding 10 points and Bailey eight points.
Parella hit a 3-pointer, Lidell converted on a basket and Roca sank three free throws, while freshman Alex Moesch led the effort, converting four 3-pointers to account for more than half of his 23 points.
This finished the Lakers’ season at 12-8 as it would wait more than a week to find out where it would get paired for the sectional tournament.
A very different situation faced the Chittenango boys basketball team. Simply put, it had to win its last two games to get to the .400 league mark needed for a playoff berth.
Against Phoenix Tuesday night, the quest nearly ended, but the Bears showed its toughness and resilience, pulling out a 58-57 ovetime decision over the Firebirds.
Phoenix led 34-28 at halftime, but Chittenango held them to six points in the third quarter and, during the late stages of regulation, did enough to get even 52-52.
In a tight four-minute OT period, the Bears’ defense again saved things, limiting the Firebirds to five points.
Brian Schermerhorn finished with 15 points, part of a four-pronged attack where Bryce Bishop got 13 points and the duo of Tyrus Kelly and Alex Lum had 12 points apiece.
So it all rode on Thursday’s game against Homer, and with that urgency Chittenango got off to just the start it wanted, grabbing a 16-6 lead on the Trojans through one quarter.
But then the Bears hit a slump the rest of the half, held to two points. Homer went in front 20-18, and it stayed that close until the fourth quarter.
Getting away late, the Trojans prevailed 56-46, overcoming 18 points from Kelly and 14 points from Bishop. Jarrett Wilbur (17 points) and Derek Fickett (16 points) paced Homer as Mikyle Franklin added 12 points.
