CENTRAL NEW YORK – Still sitting at no. 11 in last week’s state Class AA rankings, the West Genesee boys basketball team battled its way through two more challenging opponents and moved its overall record to 16-2.
It began with last Tuesday’s trip to Utica Proctor, a possible post-season preview that saw the Raiders lead for long early stretches but the Wildcats get control and eventually prevail by a 59-52 margin.
The second quarter proved key. Trailing Proctor 10-8, WG went on a 19-12 run the rest of the half, its best scoring burst of the night that established a lead the Raiders tried to chip away at the rest of the game.
Jordan Cain took over the attack, his 26 points nearly half the Wildcats’ total output. Sincere Smith, with 11 points, and Gary McLane, with nine points, helped out as Marc Simmons (14 points) and Marquel Henderson (11 points) paced Proctor.
Then, facing Fulton on Friday, WG had its annual game to honor Joe Adams, the long-time junior varsity coach who passed away in 2018, with the team wearing warm-up T-shirts bearing the no. 5 Adams wore when he was a player with the Wildcats.
Inspired, and challenged, WG rallied to pull out a tense 75-71 victory over the Red Dragons, the program where Fred Kent was head coach before he came to Camillus in 2010.
All through the first three periods, Fulton answered whatever WG threw at them, eventually building a 57-49 advantage as Gavin Doty was on his way to 32 points on the heels of earning a last-second basket to beat Jamesville-DeWitt earlier in the week.
Together, though, the Wildcats roared back in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Red Dragons 26-14 and pulling it out as Cain worked his total to 25 points, McLane had 23 points and Joe Cavallo got all of his 15 points from five 3-pointers. Meanwhile, aside from Doty, Fulton’s top scorer was Tyler Ditton with just 10 points.
Bishop Ludden had a chance on Friday to sweep the regular-season “Holy War” against Christian Brothers Academy, but faced a bigger test last Tuesday and passed it, defeating Syracuse Academy of Science 58-52.
What made it more impressive was the way the Gaelic Knights stormed back after the Atoms built a 26-16 halftime lead led by Andre Pasha, who finished with 23 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and four blocks.
Of course, Ludden has its own frontcourt star in freshman Liam Sheard, who helped Ludden catch up and overtake SAS in the fourth quarter on his way to 23 points, six rebounds and four blocks.
Joe Dunham put up 14 points, with Tim Dunham getting 10 points and seven rebounds. Jahzar Greene had seven rebounds, five assists and five steals to go with six points.
Then Ludden turned to CBA and, indeed, did get that season sweep of the Brothers, prevailing 72-52 by outscoring the hosts in every single quarter and deftly spreading its production around.
Greene led with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Mike Masterpole stepped up and equaled Sheard’s total of 13 points as Sheard added six rebounds and three blocks. Joe Dunham had 12 points and Tim Dunham nine points, plus six rebounds.
Then Ludden prevailed again Sunday over St. Francis (Buffalo) 72-45, led by Sheard’s double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds as he also had two blocks and three steals. Tim and Joe Dunham matched each other with 10 points and Greene, again, did a bit of everything, from 10 points to seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.
Westhill, who moved up to no. 18 in the state Class A rankings, found itself slowed down by Homer for long stretches of last Tuesday night’s battle, but still muddled through to beat the Trojans 52-42.
Much improved this winter, Homer overcame a slow start and, with a big third quarter, trimmed the Warriors’ lead to 40-36, but it was not quite able to keep up that momentum.
Inching away late, Westhill saw Kam Langdon accumulate 21 points, six rebounds and six assists, with Eli Prince adding 18 points and five rebounds. Eli Welch got 10 rebounds and Dom Zawadzki added six points.
In Thursday night’s 69-50 victory over Cortland, the Warriors were much more productive. Still, up 40-31 at halftime, Westhill saw the 4-12 Purple Tigers threaten an upset when it moved within five, 52-47, by the end of the third.
Sufficiently alarmed, the Warriors shut down Cortland the rest of the night, closing on a 17-3 run as Prince again had a big night with 29 points, augmenting Langdon’s 23 points as no one else on the roster had more than five points.
