CENTRAL NEW YORK – When the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool girls basketball teams make their way to holiday tournaments in vastly different locales hundreds of miles apart next week, they do so feeling quite good about where they stand.
The Northstars’ confidence stemmed not just from its victories, but who they beat, and how they pulled it off.
Having four players score in double figures in wins over Elmira and Rome Free Academy, C-NS did the same last Saturday at Bishop Ludden, pulling away to beat the Gaelic Knights 73-54.
Ludden’s top player, Amarah Streiff, put up 13 first-quarter points as her side went in front 19-15, but from there the Northstars contained her well, the Colgate-bound senior managing just one field goal the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Olivia Cook’s 10 first-half points set the tone as C-NS grabbed a 36-27 lead by halftime and stretched the margin to 54-38 before Ludden’s 13-4 run made it close again in the fourth quarter.
But Sydney Nesci’s back-to-back 3-pointers sparked a 15-0 dash that ended the suspense, part of an effort where the Northstars connected 11 times beyond the arc, four each by Nesci and reserve Mallory Brooks.
Nesci finished with a game-high 20 points. All of Brooks’ 12 points came from those outside shots as Cook finished with 13 points and Maddy Howell got 10 points. Elizabeth Gaughan paced Ludden with 18 points.
As this went on, Liverpool was just coming off the first of two games in the Zebra Classic it hosted, a tough battle where a late comeback was needed to beat Section IV’s Maine-Endwell 55-49.
With less than three minutes left, the Warriors trailed the Spartans 49-48, but it moved back in front late and, with timely defense, shut M-E down on several possessions.
What was more, Liverpool had three different players record double-doubles. Neveah Wingtate augmented her 19 points with 15 rebounds, while Jakeira Stackhouse had 14 points and 10 rebounds and A’briyah Cunningham got 12 points and 11 rebounds.
It wasn’t as close a day later, Liverpool defeating Section V’s Hilton 56-40 to move to 4-1 as it opened the game on a 13-4 run and outscored the Cadets 20-8 in the third to get clear.
Wingate finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds, helped this time by Kaylyn Sweeney, who put up 10 points. Grace Sleeth got seven points and Gianna Washington had six points.
The bigger news from that win was that, with her total, Sweeney reached 1,065 career points and surpassed Jenna Wike (who had 1,063 points from 2014 to 2018) as the girls basketball program’s all-time leading scorer.
Then, in last Tuesday’s game at Fayetteville-Manlius, Wingate continued to flourish in Liverpool’s 60-40 win over the Hornets.
Having claimed the no. 19 spot in the first state Class AA rankings of the winter, the Warriors used a big second quarter to take charge and then outscored F-M 16-3 in the third to extend that margin to 52-26.
With nearly half her team’s output, Wingate finished with 27 points, while Cunningham gained nine points and Stackhouse earned eight points.
This happened as C-NS, no. 14 in the first state Class AA rankings of the winter, took its first setback, a 75-59 defeat state no. 12-ranked Fairport, from Section V.
Outscored 47-26 in the second and third quarters, the Northstars still saw Nesci and Kathleen Taru each net 13 points, with Maddy Howell getting 12 points and Jill Howell nine points.
