A quarter-century removed from its last Section III championship, the Solvay boys basketball team moved closer to ending that long drought, while Marcellus also emerged from Tuesday night’s slate of Class B quarterfinal games.
The Bearcats faced no. 7 seed Skaneateles and, unlike its tense round-of-16 win over Oneida on Feb. 22, Solvay gained control early and never let go of it, pulling away to beat the Lakers 65-45.
These teams first met Jan. 14 and the Bearcats prevailed 56-46, and in the rematch it could not have started better for the Bearcats, who poured in shots and was up 21-7 by the end of the first quarter.
Skaneateles did cut the margin to 27-22 by halftime, but it got no closer, Solvay outcoring the Lakers 18-9 in the third quarter and putting the game away.
Nate Fouts, who had 36 points for Skaneateles in its Feb. 21 playoff win over Jordan-Elbridge, only got 17 points, and no one else hit double figures, Tyler DelFavero getting nine points as Andrew Neumann and Max Wamp each had eight points.
Spreading its production around, the Bearcats had Brock Bagozzi lead with 16 points, with Jaimen Bliss getting 15 points and Elijah Wright adding 14 points as Blaine Franklin had seven points.
Meanwhile, Marcellus welcomed no. 13 seed Mount Markham, who had knocked off no. 4 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in the previous round and looked for another upset here before the host Mustangs pulled it out 66-62.
Marcellus steadliy worked its way to a 29-22 halftime lead, only to have Mount Markham break out in the third quarter and more than double its total to get out in front, 46-45.
But just like it did against Holland Patent a round earlier, Marcellus closed strong, overcoming 23 points from Mount Markham’s Eddie King to get to the semifinal round.
Leading that charge, Luke Ingianni got 19 points, with fellow senior Jared Sammon earning 17 points. Will Kimber and Matt Kershaw had nine points apiece as Tristan Jarvi finished with eight points.
On Saturday night at SRC Arena, Solvay meets no. 3 seed General Brown in the first semifinal, followed by Marcellus attempting to upend top seed and defending champion Lowville, who at 20-1 sits atop the state Class B rankings, too.
