ONONDAGA COUNTY – Just as was the case a year ago, it was Christian Brothers Academy standing in the way of the Liverpool boys basketball team returning to the Section III Class AA championship game.
And the result was similar – a victory by the Warriors over the Brothers Saturday in the semifinals at SRC Arena that sets up a return trip to that same venue next Sunday night at 7 p.m. to meet the same opponent, West Genesee, it beat to win the title in 2022.
However, Liverpool found this venture with CBA, won by a score of 63-48, far less stressful than the last time these two teams met.
Everyone, on both sides, was quite aware of what happened 12 months ago in this same round on this same floor, a triple-overtime epic that left the Warriors exultant in victory and the Brothers crushed in defeat.
These were different teams in 2023, though, with Liverpool bigger and stronger than its CBA counterparts and willing to press that advantage wherever it could.
From the moment the Warriors used a 9-0 run in the first quarter to erase an early 6-2 deficit, the defending sectional champions were in total control, and the root of it was a defense that had one of its best performances of the season.
Twice in the first half, Liverpool held CBA without a field goal for a stretch of at least five minutes, controlling the paint while also working outside to deny the Brothers outside shooting opportunities.
Among other things, it allowed the Warriors the ability to not rush things on offense, running where it could, but content to wait longer for open looks and spreading the production around.
Only when CBA, trailing 40-24 in the third quarter, went on an 11-2 run was any serious concern raised, but Liverpool quickly restored its double-digit margin by the final period and pulled clear.
Andreo Ash, strong everywhere on defense, and Jah’Deuir Reese finished with 18 points apiece. Bruce Wingate had 13 points, with Freddy Fowler earning six of his 11 points in the fourth quarter to help put the game away.
Getting here, for Liverpool, required getting past no. 8 seed Utica Proctor in Wednesday’s quarterfinals and, back at full strength, the Warriors put up a season-high total for points and routed the Raiders 95-59.
Wingate was back in the lineup, having missed Liverpool’s last two regular-season games, and his presence galvanized the Warriors’ attack as it steadily gained a 45-28 lead on Proctor by halftime.
It got more lopsided in the second half, Liverpool ultimately putting five players in double figures led by Wingate, who had 16 points, and Ash, who got 23 points.
Reese remained steady, earning 18 points, while Luca Latocha, Jason Lawler and Derek Grimshaw hit eight 3-pointers between them, Latoch getting 11 points, Lawler 10 points and Grimshaw nine points.
Then it was the win over CBA and a final with a West Genesee side that, with a strong closing stretch, beat Nottingham 66-57 in the other semifinal, but must try to overcome the recent history of three straight losses to Liverpool, two of them in overtime.
