SYRACUSE – In many ways, the Westhill boys basketball team had waited more than a year for the opportunity it would get last Thursday night against Chittenango.

Back in December 2021, the Warriors lost a narrow 53-49 decision at Chittenango. And the Warriors never got a chance at payback against the Bears, beaten in the Section III Class B quarterfinals by Central Valley Academy one round before it would face the eventual sectional champions.

Thirteen months later, Westhill at last saw Chittenango again on the court for the first of two January showdowns that were likely to determine league honors and perhaps the top sectional playoff seed, too.

And once again it was the Bears emerging victorious, breaking open a tense contest with a strong fourth-quarter push led by Hobart College-bound senior Alex Moesch that, by a 68-54 margin, handed the Warriors its first defeat of the season.

The long wait for this game only added to the emotion on both ends, evident from the start as each possession was contested, and things stayed close after the Bears started the game 9-2 and the Warriors countered with a 9-0 run.

The entire second and third quarters passed without either side leading by more than four points. Luke Gilmartin matched Alex Moesch’s first-half total of 12 points, and Chittenango clung to a 29-28 edge at the break.

Five different times in the third period, Westhill tied the game, but did not go in front, denied by a Bears defense that, for the most part, took away the Warriors’ outside shooting.

Moesch then took over. Just as he had done at the end of the first quarter, Moesch connected on a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the third, only now it gave the Bears the lead for good and triggered an 11-0 run.

Westhill did cut it to 56-52 with less than three minutes left, but without two starters who fouled out (Gilmartin and James Derrick), the Warriors could not keep Chittenango from getting clear at the end, capped by a Ryan Moesch drive, basket and free throw with 1:46 to play.

Alex Moesch finished with 28 points, helped plenty by both Ryan Moesch’s 17 points and Ty Kelly’s 15 points. Westhill, who will play Chittenango again on Jan. 24, was led by Gilmartin’s 18 points, with Omar Robinson getting 13 points and Shawn Mayes adding 12 points.

Sitting at no. 7 in last week’s state Class B rankings, Westhill got another big win two days before it played Chittenango, turning back state Class A no. 24-ranked Bishop Grimes 77-65.

All through the first half, the Cobras kept leaving Mayes and Kam Langdon open – and paid for it, the pair combining to hit nine of the team’s 11 3-pointers that accounted for most of a 41-29 advantage.

And when Grimes honed in on Mayes and Langdon, Robinson and Gilmartin took full advantage, the duo accounting for most of the offense as Westhill used a 15-3 run late in the third quarter to put the game away.

Mayes and Gilmartin both finished with 20 points. Robinson had 14 of his 16 points in the second half as Langdon also got 16 points. For the Cobras, Deng Garang had 25 points, with Jon Corl and Nate Abernethy each getting 16 points.