Even though she still has a year remaining to further boost her credentials, Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball forward Jessica Cook has already made up her mind about her college destination in the fall of 2021.
On Thursday, Cook, who led the Northstars to the Section III Class AA championship in March, announced a verbal commitment to the University of Toledo, beating out other Division I schools that included Massachusetts, Saint Joseph’s, Marist and Miami (Ohio), the last of which competes with Toledo in the Mid-American Conference.
For the last three seasons, the 6-foot-2 Cook has led C-NS in scoring and rebounds. In 2018 and 2019, her work helped C-NS reach the sectional finals, only to take defeats to West Genesee on both occasions.
That changed in 2019-20, when after a 3-5 start that included a trio of defeats in a national tournament in Arizona in December, the Northstars went 14-1 the rest of the way to earn the sectional crown.
Along the way, Cook had several signature performances. She put up 38 points in a Jan. 3 win over Liverpool that put Cook past the 1,000-career point mark, and got 36 points when C-NS defeated West Genesee on Feb. 11.
Then C-NS avenged its lone league loss to Baldwinsville when it knocked off the top-seeded Bees in the March 7 sectional final, Cook notching 12 of her 20 points in the fourth quarter to put the game away. For the season, Cook averaged 20.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game.
Also on Thursday, Liverpool High School senior Jack Pento announced that he will play soccer at Ithaca College this fall after he led the Warriors to an unlikely post-season run last fall.
“It has been a long process but with the help of family, friends, and coaches I was able to come to (a) decision,” said Pento. “I can’t wait to start this new chapter in my life.”
A varsity standout in both soccer and basketball, Pento made his biggest mark last October during the Liverpool boys soccer team’s late-season turnaround.
Once at 3-10, the Warriors had to win its last three games of the season just to get into the sectional playoffs. Then it stunned top-seeded, state-ranked Fayetteville-Manlius in the quarterfinals, with Pento anchoring the defense during a 0-0 shutout and then converting the winning kick in a penalty shootout.
Maintaining that momentum, Liverpool then defeated Henninger in the sectional semifinals, with Pento scoring his team’s first goal, before falling in the title game to Baldwinsville.
