Each of the Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball players had grown impatient and hungry after three straight seasons ended without the championship glory to which it was so accustomed.
That wait has now ended.
The no. 2 seed Northstars upended top seed Baldwinsville 52-37 Saturday night at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall to reclaim the Section III Class AA championship it last won in 2016.
“We finally put C-NS back on top,” said junior forward Jessica Rowe.
“It feels really good,” said fellow junior Julia Rowe, whose early 3-pointers set the game’s tone that the rest of the Northstars would follow.
Having put away the West Genesee side that denied them in the 2018 and 2019 sectional finals, C-NS now took aim at a B’ville side out to end a 25-year championship drought.
It helped the Northstars that, back on Jan. 17, it gave the Bees its only defeat of the season, 50-45, and while B’ville avenged that loss a few weeks later, neither Rowe nor Mackenzie White played in that game.
At least in theory, B’ville wanted to use its speed, athleticism and scoring depth to take charge while C-NS wanted Cook to dominate in the paint and her teammates to rely on defense to contain the Bees.
All of that changed once the game tipped off, though, and in the first 90 seconds the Northstars raced in front 7-0 with a Rowe 3-pointer and back-to-back baskets from Cook and Alita Carey-Santangelo.
C-NS would make B’ville pay dearly for the double teams they gave to Cook throughout the first half. Six different times, the Northstars converted from beyond the arc.
No sequence was as important as what took place late in the second quarter. The Bees had cut C-NS’s lead to 21-19 when Alexandra Miller hit on a 3-pointer and followed with a driving layup.
Then Abbee Norris hit a 3-pointer of her own and Gabby Hillman also striking from long distance just before the horn, capping an 11-2 run that boosted the Northstars to a 32-21 halftime lead.
Cook said that she was glad for the all the attention given to her because it allowed other players to stand out.
“I was thrilled for my teammates,” she said. “There’s a great group around me and, together, they shined.”
It was as a group that the Northstars responded well when B’ville scored the first six points of the third quarter. Cranking up its defense, C-NS blanked the Bees for the next six-plus minutes, a drought that stretched until the final period.
By then, Cook was back in her usual form. Scoring 11 consecutive points in the fourth quarter, Cook worked her total to 20 points and put B’ville away. Rowe and Miller each finished with 10 points.
Next Saturday at 4:15, C-NS will go to Troy’s Hudson Valley Community College to face Section II champion Shenendehowa in the Class AA regional final, hoping to avenge an 80-46 defeat to the Plainsmen in early December and return to HVCC March 21-22 for the state final four.
