ONONDAGA COUNTY – For everyone associated with the Liverpool boys basketball team, the entire season, and all of its possibilities, hinged on when junior forward Andreo Ash returned.
Injured in late January, Ash missed three games, including last Sunday’s rematch of the overtime battle in the 2022 Class AA regional final against Albany’s Green Tech.
Despite great defense, the Warriors lost, 59-53, to the Eagles, with Bruce Wingate picking up 20 points and Jah’Deuir Reese earning 12 points as Fred Fowler finished with nine points.
Back in league play last Wednesday night, Liverpool took on Nottingham – and suffered its first league defeat of the season, falling 66-48 to the Bulldogs.
With Ash, the Warriors had beat Nottingham 57-46 a week earlier, but without him it had a difficult time putting up a consistent attack against a Bulldogs defense that made Liverpool struggle for every single basket.
Wingate did get 14 points and Jeff Manuel added 10 points, while Reese had nine points. All of them were topped by Bulldogs forward Steyvon Jones, who struck for 28 points helped by 18 points from Malachi McCurty.
But then Ash returned on Friday night for Liverpool’s game at Baldwinsville, where things quickly got back on track as the Warriors pulled away to beat the Bees 72-43.
Glad to be back at full strength, Liverpool jumped out 21-3 on B’ville in a lopsided first quarter and watched as Ash would pick up 20 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Offering plenty of support, Wingate had 11 points, with Reese and Fowler getting 10 points apiece. No B’ville player scored in double figures as Matt Young led with nine points.
Seeing all this, Cicero-North Syracuse had to prove that it could hold its own againt a top area Class AA contender, and would get the chance last Fridaytwhen state no. 19-ranked West Genesee visited.
Having lost 77-55 to the Wildcats late in December, the Northstars threatened to reverse that outcome with a stirring second-half comeback, only to get answered as WG prevailed 59-47.
All through the first half and deep into the third quarter, C-NS was shut down, and found itself trailing 40-20, but Benedict nearly erased all of it.
Netting 13 of his game-high 27 points, Benedict sparked a 17-1 run where the Northstars held WG without a field goal for more than five minutes.
Absorbing this, the Wildcats then went on an 11-0 run of its own to start the fourth quarter and put the game away, led by Christian Cain (15 points) and Sincere Smith, who had 11 points starting in place of Christian Amica.
Before this, C-NS rode a huge performance from Benedict to an 86-65 victory over Section IV’s Binghamton last Tuesday night, a game where the Northstars actually trailed 22-16 through one quarter.
But a 27-11 push before halftime got C-NS in front for good, and it outscored the Patriots 24-7 in the final period as Benedict set a new career mark, amassing 38 points.
He didn’t work alone, either, as Reece Congel and Terrance Coppack got 12 points apiece and Michael Gallo, with 10 points, also hit double figures.
