LIVERPOOL – Just about everything went wrong for the Liverpool girls basketball team in the early portion of Tuesday night’s showdown with Cicero-North Syracuse.
Then it all went right for the Warriors in just as complete a manner.
As a result, a 22-point deficit turned into a 61-49 victory in the lone regular-season meeting between these two rivals and their first encounter since Liverpool beat C-NS in last March’s Section III Class AA final.
And it was A’briyah Cunningham, the Warriors’ superb junior guard, who proved the central figure in both the early crisis and the ferocious comeback.
It was C-NS, in just its second game of the season, making all the correct moves in the early going, a trend that only got more pronounced when Cunningham went to the bench with her second foul just three minutes into the contest.
Without her, Liverpool was held without a field goal in the game’s first 10 minutes, more than enough time for the Northstars, buoyed by hot outside shooting by the likes of Kat McRobbie-Taru, to dash to a 26-7 lead.
Even when Cunningham returned and broke the long field-goal drought early in the second period, C-NS kept on adding to its margin. When reserve Amanda Timmons hit on a runner near the midway point of the quarter, the Northstars had a 33-11 advantage.
Liverpool proceeded to go on a 40-7 run, an extended string of superb all-around play with Cunningham as the spark.
The key sequence came late in the second quarter, Cunningham rattling off nine of her team’s 12 points that nearly cut the deficit in half and sent the teams to the break with the Warriors only trailing 35-23.
“A’briyah made big plays, and then everyone followed,” said Liverpool head coach Mike Wheeler.
Applying heavy pressure whenever C-NS got into the midcourt, the Warriors forced a string of turnovers and kept erasing the deficit until six straight points by Cunningha mgave Liverpool the lead for good late in the third quarter. In one memorable sequence, the Warriors trapped and Cunningham blocked a shot, stole it in mid-air and then drove down for a breakaway layup.
But this wasn’t a one-player show, despite Cunningham producing a game-high 23 points. Everyone on Liverpool’s roster excelled on defense, whether forcing steals or making key rebounds as C-NS went cold from the field.
Gianna Washington and Kaylyn Sweeney both converted key baskets during this stretch and finished with 13 points apiece, with six of Sweeney’s points in the fourth quarter, while Angie Kohler earned eight points.
Stunned by the turnaround, the Northstars were never able to put together a late comeback of its own. other than McRobbie-Taru, who finished with 19 points, no C-NS player scored in double figures.
What was just as impressive for Liverpool was that, after such an emotional victory, there was no letdown Thursday as, against East Syracuse Minoa, the Warriors routed the Spartans 70-28.
Cunningham, with her 24 points, led an attack that started the game 20-8 and peaked with a 24-5 surge through the third quarter. Giselle Cruz joined Sweeney as they both finished with 11 points, Cruz hitting on three 3-pointers, while Kohler, with 10 points, also hit double figures.
It is on this note that the Warriors head next Monday to the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Florida for a three-game tournament against elite national competition.
C-NS, meanwhile, recovered from the Liverpool loss in a big way on Saturday, routing Section V’s Fairport 57-26 with a defense that only allowed a grand total of eight points in the second half.
On the other end, Leah Benedict assumed the starring role, her 16 points mostly built from a trio of 3-pointers. McRobbie-Taru and Grace Villnave each had seven points, with Olivia Cook and Meadow Werts getting six points apiece.