ONONDAGA COUNTY – While it’s one thing to have a rivalry, as Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse does in boys basketball and any other sport, it’s quite another when the two sides mirror each other’s regular-season accomplishments.
Both teams played 20 game, and both won 18 of them – but partly because it won head-to-head in overtime when they met in December, the Warriors would carry the top seed into the Section III Class AAA playoffs.
Even that wasn’t decided, though, before last Thursday night, when Liverpool took on Syracuse Academy of Science, no. 16 in the state Class AA rankings, and with a superb defensive performance beat the Atoms 61-43.
At SAS, the focus was always on junior center Andre Pasha, the senior forward who was averaging nearly 24 points and more than 18 rebounds per game.
To counter Pasha, the Warriors used a 2-3 zone that, while not completely containing Pasha, all but shut out his teammates and eventually wore the Atoms down.
Liverpool inched out in front early and then, through the game’s middle stages, kept building the margin, eventually going up 40-27 through three quarters.
Pasha would produce late and finish with 20 points, but outside of him SAS had just one field goal inside the paint and settled for a steady diet of 3-point shots, not all of which went in.
On the other end, the Warriors again saw Alex Trombley produce off the bench, Trombley’s 21 points topping Pasha and featuring more help as Jeff Manuel earned 11 points and Daniel Dunn stepped up with 10 points.
Two nights earlier, C-NS met the same Jamesville-DeWitt side Liverpool had handled 81-64 on Feb. 9, and appeared on its way to a similar win before the Red Rams nearly staged a stunning late comeback.
Steady play through the first three quarters had the Northstars in front 55-38 going to the fourth quarter, but for the rest of the game J-D kept making shots and kept eroding C-NS’s advantage.
It got within a single possession at the end, but the Northstars held on, 70-67, with three big performances as Andrew Benedict had 24 points, Nate Francis was close behind with 19 points and Michael Pfautz had 17 points, two off his season best.
To keep J-D in it, Alan Zanders led with 20 points, with Trent Hughes getting 13 points as Jackson Saroney and Jack Hazelton had 10 points apiece.
C-NS indeed ended up with the no. 2 sectional seed, and gets an interesting assignment next Friday at 6:30 when it hosts no. 7 seed Christian Brothers Academy in the quarterfinal round, the winner to get Rome Free Academy or Baldwinsville in the semifinals.
This happens on the same night where Liverpool hosts no. 8 seed Henninger, heavily favored to get to those same Feb. 28 semifinals at Fayetteville-Manlius against Utica Proctor or Bishop Ludden, with the final taking place March 2 at 4 p.m. at SRC Arena.
