ONONDAGA COUNTY – An eventful first full week of 2022 culminated Friday with Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse again claiming important wins on the basketball court.
At C-NS, the girls Northstars moved into first place in the SCAC Metro division by holding off Baldwinsville 51-50, while at Liverpool both Warriors teams prevailed over Fayetteville-Manlius – the girls in overtime 43-40, the boys by handing the Hornets its first defeat in league play 71-56.
The anticipation for the C-NS-B’ville girls game partly stemmed from the fact that these two sides met in the last Section III Class AA title game contested in 2020, won by the Northstars.
Now both sides entered this game unbeaten in league play, and it was the Bees who jumped out in front 7-0 – as it turned out, the largest lead either team would own all night.
It was Alexa Kulikowski leading C-NS back, her 13 first-half points allowing the Northstars to catch up, even though the Bees inched back in front, 27-26, by halftime.
When C-NS opened the third quarter with a 9-2 run, most of it at the free-throw line, it would never trail again, but would spend the rest of the game battling hard to keep its slim margin.
Three times in the fourth quarter, B’ville would pull within a point. Twice, C-NS restored some of its margin thanks to Alita Carey-Santangelo with a 3-pointer and some free throws, while Kulakowski added seven more points in the final period to finish with 22.
But when B’ville, down 52-49, again moved within one on Ola Bednarczyk’s lay-up with 1:07 left, the Northstars were unable to separate again, with an offensive foul on one possession and Carey-Santangelo missing two free throws with 7.6 seconds left.
With the last shot, the Bees turned to Sydney Huhtala, who all game long had used her vast array of skills to pour in a game-high 23 points. Here, though, the Northstars stripped Huhtala of the ball, which went out to Carlie Young, whose potential winning 3-pointer glanced off the rim as time ran out.
Earlier in the week, C-NS had defeated Liverpool, who now turned its attention to an F-M squad who already had close defeats to both the Northstars and B’ville in December.
Led by Gianna Washington, who had most of her 15 points in the second quarter, the Warriors were up 20-16 at halftime before the Hornets went on a third-period run to move in front, paced by Ava Angello, who had 15 points.
However, it was Liverpool rallying late by limiting F-M to six points in the fourth quarter. And even though a possible winning shot was missed and it went to overtime, the Warriors inched in front in the extra period.
Julia Wike’s two free throws with 6.1 seconds left in OT, and an off-target Hornets 3-pointer, secured Liverpool’s win. Naveah Wingate finished with 11 points and Kaylyn Sweeney added nine points.
When the Liverpool boys team took the court, it knew that F-M owned a perfect 5-0 record in the SCAC Metro division, but quickly altered that mark as it led from start to finish against the Hornets.
Scoring the game’s first seven points, the Warriors, led by Jaiden Reynolds and Bruce Wingate, took full advantage of cold F-M shooting and built a 30-13 lead by the second quarter.
Luke Davidson led a Hornets resurgence as it closed the half on a 13-2 run to make it 32-26 at the break, only to see the Warriors again seize control with an 8-0 run to open the third quarter.
The margin grew to 49-31 before the Hornets again rode Davidson’s hot hand to try and make it close. All told, Davidson had 27 points, but of his teammates, only Trevor Roe (12 points) reached double figures.
Meanwhile, Liverpool got a big finish from Jacob Works, who earned 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half to follow up his 32-point effort against C-NS. Reynolds and Wingate gained 15 points apiece as Jake Socker had 10 points and Andreo Ash got nine points.
What prevented a total sweep of the night was the C-NS boys basketball team absorbing its second consecutive defeat, falling to Baldwinsville 63-58.
Steadily, the Bees built a 51-35 lead through three quarters. Without Luke Paragon in the lineup, the Northstars struggled until a fourth-quarter surge made it tight.
Reece Congel, who had 17 points, and Andrew Benedict, who got 12 points, led the comeback, but B’ville held on as Jason Bifulco poured in 24 points, Eli Taft got 19 points and Greg Marinelli added 14 points.
