CENTRAL NEW YORK – In the opening days of the new year, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball teams made it quite clear that they intend to have a large say in how their respective league and Section III races play out.
Returning from a COVID-19-enforced pause that kept it from playing in Christian Brothers Academy’s holiday tournament, the Hornets jumped all over reigning sectional Class A champion Corcoran last Tuesday night.
F-M’s 87-55 romp over the Cougars featured an offense that was sharp from the outset and ran right past Corcoran’s defenders, especially in the second half.
Outscoring the Cougars 47-29 in those last two periods, the Hornets got a big night from Trevor Roe, who drew plenty of contact and finished with 28 points, 12 of them free throws.
Luke Davidson provide the contrast in the perimeter, hitting four 3-pointers on his way to 18 points overall. Max Danaher chimed in with 14 points as Patrick Emery got seven points and Robert Mason six points.
So now the 6-1 Hornets would have another big game on Friday as it visited 5-1 Liverpool, but here F-M would take its first league defeat, unable to overcome slow starts to each half in a 71-56 defeat.
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.
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 Roe, with 12 points, reached double figures.
Meanwhile, Liverpool got a big finish from Jacob Works, who earned 13 of his 17 points in the second half. Reynolds and Wingate gained 15 points apiece as Jake Socker had 10 points and Andreo Ash got nine points.
J-D, meanwhile, continued to fight back from its atypical 1-5 start, winning its third in a row last Tuesday when it went to Cortland and earned a 54-42 victory over the Purple Tigers.
Down 14-9 after one period, the Red Rams ate away at that deficit and, boosted by a strong third quarter, went out in front, ultimately outscoring Cortland 36-22 over the course of the last two periods.
And though Brendan Kohberger again led J-D with 15 points, he had far more help than before. Anthony Stickle and Ben Schallinger both stepped up, earning 12 points apiece, while Ian Delpha chimed in with nine points.
Against PSLA-Fowler on Friday, the Rams reached the .500 mark, prevailing 70-43 as it took the lead in the second quarter and outscored the Falcons 40-19 in the second half.
Kohberger again was the main threat, amassing 27 points, but Delpha improved, too, earning 14 points as Stickle got 10 points and Schallinger earned eight points.
Early this week, J-D takes on its neighbors from East Syracuse Minoa, who was 2-5 going into the new year but signaled that it could stage its own turnaround last Tuesday when it defeated Fulton 55-43.
Strong defense in the first half kept the Red Raiders from getting away. Then, with the score tied 19-19 at the break, the Spartans went out in front in the third quarter and stayed there.
Tristan Henderson led the way for ESM, earning 16 points as Cole Thomas put up 13 points. Aiden Betts had seven points as Jusmin Kallap, Jacob Franklin and Andrew Graham had six points apiece. The Spartans moved its game with Whitesboro, postponed from Dec. 28, to Jan. 26.
