CENTRAL NEW YORK – What’s increasingly apparent is that it will take something quite special for anyone to keep the Liverpool girls basketball team from another Section III title, and perhaps much more.
Still at no. 7 in the state Class AAA rankings, the Warriors welcomed state Class AA no. 18-ranked Central Square last Tuesday night with a 22-3 first-quarter blitz, and that was just the beginning.
By halftime, it was 49-10, and not until the fourth quarter did Liverpool, up 68-17, ease up, but it still was an emphatic 80-31 victory led by the duo of A’briyah Cunningham and Kaylyn Sweeney.
Cunningham finished with 26 points, adding seven rebounds, while Sweeney got 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals. Angelina Kohler added 10 points and eight rebounds as Giselle Cruz got nine points and, with a pair of 3-pointers, Joelle Wike chimed in with six points.
More of the same followed in Friday’s 75-45 win over Oswego, where the Warriors again decided it early, sprinting out 29-6 on the Buccaneers in the opening period and essentially sitting on that margin the rest of the way.
Eleven different players got on the scoresheet, led by Cunningham’s 16 points. Sweeney had 10 points and Cruz again got nine points, with Gianna Washington earning eight points. Wike again had six points to equal Kohler’s total.
Though it sits with an 8-5 record heading into Friday’s key game against Baldwinsville, Cicero-North Syracuse knows that it’s as much a function of the tough schedule it has faced.
This sprung up again on the weekend of Jan. 13-14 when, in the Best of NY Tournament it hosted at North Syracuse Junior High School, the Northstars got beat twice by Section II foes.
State Class B no. 3-ranked Catholic Central topped C-NS 63-52 in the opener, breaking open a close contest in the final minutes to overcome 19 points from Kat McRobbie-Taru and 15 points from Olivia Cook. Jilly Howell added seven points.
An even closer game followed with Bethlehem, but the state Class AA no. 13-ranked Eagles outscored the Northstars 73-67, again with the game in doubt most of the way. C-NS lost despite hitting on 11 3-pointers, six of them by Leah Benedict to count for most of her 20 points as McRobbie-Taru’s 18 points included four 3-pointers. Meadow Werts added nine points.
All of this served as motivation for the Northstars going into last Tuesday’s game against Fulton, where it cranked up the defense from the outset and closed strong to romp past the Red Dragons 67-29.
It was 18-8 after one period, and C-NS kept adding to that margin and, come the fourth quarter, stomped Fulton 26-2, led by McRobbie-Taru, who hit seven more 3-pointers and, with 29 points, equaled the Red Dragons all by herself.
Nine of the 10 Northstars players that saw action got at least one field goal. Benedict earned 11 points, with Werts and Howell adding seven points apiece.
