More than 11 months ago, the Baldwinsville girls basketball team left the court at Onondaga Community College’s Allyn Hall, having seen a special season fall one victory short of a Section III Class AA title.
No one there could have foreseen the long, stressful and anxious road that the Bees would have to travel in order to return to the court.
With COVID-19 rampaging through most of the winter, it looked like there would not be a 2020-21 season, but late in January state officials gave the go-ahead to basketball and other “high-risk” winter sports.
B’ville then went to work at the start of February, returning three starters – Alexandra Bednarczyk, Hannah Mimas and Sydney Huhtala – along with top reserve Kyrah Wilbur from that 2019-20 squad.
And with six mandatory practices in the books, B’ville made the short drive to Liverpool’s brand-new gymnasium last Tuesday night for the first Section III girls basketball game of this abbreviated season.
Perhaps the long wait for this season produced some uneven performance in the early stages, but once it settled into a good groove, the Bees took over and pulled away to beat the Warriors 69-50.
An early lead went away when B’ville was held to eight points in the second quarter. Trailing 25-22 at halftime, the Bees simply cranked up its tempo and, in the third period, regained the lead for good.
Outscoring Liverpool 47-25 in those last two periods, the Bees were led by Huhtala, whose game-high 20 points included a pair of 3-pointers.
Bednarczyk, earning 17 points, and Mimas, getting 15 points, were close behind, while Wilbur, taking on a larger role, chimed in with 12 points.
The Warriors lost despite also putting four players in double figures, from Victoria Morgan’s 13 points to 11 points apiece from Naveah Wingate and Alyssa DiMillo, plus 10 points from Sophie Saeger.
Having started out well, B’ville looked to continue that work Friday at Fayetteville-Manlius, and did so in the most emphatic way possible, smashing past the Hornets 75-31.
Steadily, the Bees gained a 33-14 halftime advantage and then pulled further away, limiting F-M to just five field goals outside Lexie Roe, who surpassed 1,000 career points in her team’s win over Henninger two nights earlier and whose 17 points included four 3-pointers.
Far more balanced, B’ville saw Wilbur produce 15 points, with Huhtala and Mimas close behind, each getting 13 points. Mattison Phinney contributed eight points as 11 different players earned at least one field goal.
B’ville would take this 2-0 mark into home games against Nottingham and West Genesee this week prior to a Feb. 23 showdown with C-NS.
