ONONDAGA COUNTY – Rarely in their shared history had the East Syracuse Minoa boys basketball team pulled off a regular-season sweep of its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt.
With a chance to do so on Saturday afternoon, the Spartans went to J-D and, with a stirring fourth-quarter comeback, snatched a 46-45 victory over the Red Rams.
Whoever won this game would get to the .500 mark and, for quite a while, J-D looked like it would get even for that previous 60-58 decision on Jan. 10.
A big second quarter saw the Rams take a 30-22 lead, and even though it cooled off in the third quarter, it maintained that margin with solid, consistent defense.
Then ESM found its groove just in time, outscoring J-D 16-7 in a frantic final period to inch out in front, the comeback led by Tristan Henderson, who had 15 points, and Cole Thomas, who had 13 points.
Anthony Stickle, with 18 points, led J-D, but while Alan Zanders and Jackson Saroney both had 11 points, the rest of the Rams had just one combined field goal.
Both sides came into this game off wins last Tuesday – J-D defeating PSLA/Fowler 61-54 and ESM getting away to beat Oswego 60-51.
Jumping out 20-11 on the Falcons, in the first quarter, the Rams answered Fowler’s charge with a solid third quarter that established a 48-40 advantage.
Hanging on from there, J-D got 15 points from Trent Hughes, with Stickle and Ian Delpha getting 14 points apiece and Zanders adding eight points. Spencer Wellington and Jayderr Wilhite led the Falcons, each with 13 points.
ESM got off to a rough start at Oswego, trailing the Buccaneers 18-12 through one period. But it used a big second quarter to lead 32-29 by halftime and then limited Oswego to eight points in the third quarter, thwarting a comeback.
With near-perfect balance from its top scorers, the Spartans saw Thomas get 14 points, Tyler Quarry earn 13 points and Henderson and A.J. Graham and Tristan Henderson12 points apiece. Noah Bwalya’s 15 points paced the Bucs.
Fayetteville-Manlius faced its own big challenge with five consecutive road games to close the regular season that began last Tuesday when it fell to Nottingham 46-43.
Avenging an earlier 48-43 loss to the Hornets, the Bulldogs built a 26-17 advantage by halftime and watched F-M nearly erase all of it in the third quarter.
Trevor Roe, who reached 1,000 career points in a Jan. 28 win over East Syracuse Minoa, got 19 points on this occasion, with Chris Cleary adding 10 points. Still, Nottingham held on, with Steyvon Jones getting 18 points helped by 12 points from Malachi McCurty and 11 points from Denarius McCurty.
Two nights later, F-M rebounded by beating Henninger 61-47 in a very unusual manner, getting almost nothing outside the duo of Roe and Cleary.
An 18-7 push through the second quarter put the Hornets in control. Here, and for the rest of the night, the Black Knights tried everything to stop F-M’s main duo.
It didn’t work as Roe drove his way to 32 points and Cleary, in the best game of his career, managed 24 points. Aside from those two, only Tyler Hutcheson got a field goal on F-M’s side.
Manlius Pebble Hill started last week’s action Monday with a 66-45 loss to Port Byron, who got 17 points from Dominic Laframboise as the Panthers built a 36-14 lead by halftime on the Trojans.
But MPH did beat Mater Dei Academy 50-38 two nights later, largely a two-man effort as James Wildhack finished with 19 points and Qon Ewing added 15 points. Kevin Frastastitnav added nine points and Jay Hoke seven points.
