ONONDAGA COUNTY – Nine months had passed since the Liverpool boys basketball team last stood on the court, distraught following a loss to Albany’s Green Tech that kept it from reaching the state Class AA final four.
The wait for a new season was long enough, but was made longer by two postponements – one related to illnesses that prevented a Dec. 11 rematch with Green Tech, the other caused by weather that halted a possible game at Nottingham.
So it wasn’t until the Pathfinder Bank Zebra Classic that Liverpool, at last, began its 2022-23 season, quickly showing everyone that another Section III title is quite possible.
With three key players – Andreo Ash, Jah’Deuir Reese and Bruce Wingate – back from last winter’s memorable post-season run, the Warriors got just the right kind of test against Hilton last Saturday, emerging with a 74-60 victory over the Cadets.
The 6-foot-7 Ash began his junior campaign with 11 first-quarter points, all of which helped the Warriors establish a 35-20 lead before Hilton battled back and cut the margin to 39-33 by halftime.
Try as it could, the Warriors could not get away from the Cadets, having to wait until reserve Luca Latocha hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the fourth quarter to take off some pressure.
Though shut out in the fourth quarter, Ash till finished with 25 points. Wingate had 13 points, with Reese getting nine points. Latocha got nine points and junior forward Jeff Samuel got seven points.
A day later, against Rochester’s University Prep, the Warriors had a far easier time of it, prevailing 77-36 as it bolted out to a 20-5 edge by the end of the first quarter and just kept adding to the margin.
All 12 players that saw action for Liverpool got on the scoresheet, led by Ash, whose 19 points included a pair of 3-pointers. Latocha had 11 points and Wingate had 10 points as Jason Lawler chimed in with eight points.
In Tuesday’s SCAC Metro division opener, Liverpool faced Fayetteville-Manlius, who itself was coming off a 17-day break since beating Utica Proctor Dec. 3 in the Peppino’s Invitational at Jamesville-DeWitt.
That layoff was evident throughout a decisive first half where the Warriors forced the Hornets into a long drought from which it could not recover, and eventually prevailed 66-46.
Only up 10-7 in the first quarter, Liverpool then went on a 23-3 run, including an eight-minute stretch where F-M did not score a single point.
Ash’s 13 points matched the entire Hornets squad, and even when F-M got going in the third quarter, the Warriors matched it, Ash eventually producing 27 points as Wingate got 11 points and Reese had nine points.
That same night, Cicero-North Syracuse struggled early in its league opener against Nottingham, but rallied and, in an overtime thriller, edged the Bulldogs 63-56 to improve to 4-0 in advance of a showdown Thursday night with West Genesee.
Off for two weeks since beating Rome Free Academy on Dec. 6, the Northstars showed that rust with cold first-half shooting that allowed Nottingham to seize a 33-25 advantage.
But C-NS clamped down on defense and held the Bulldogs to three points in the third quarter. From there, it went back and forth all the way into the four-minute OT period, where C-NS outscored Nottingham 11-4 to win it.
Andrew Benedict led with 17 points as he and Reece Congel, who had 15 points, both connected on eight free throws. Michael Gallo had 13 points and Kyle Williams eight points to overcome a game-high 26 points from the Bulldogs’ Steyvon Jones.
