CENTRAL NEW YORK – On what promises to be an exciting Tuesday evening in Central New York, the West Genesee and Westhill boys basketball teams would put their seasons, their top seeds and long win streaks on the line in various Section III semifinal games.
The Wildcats, owning the no. 1 seed in Class AA, will get challenged at Liverpool High School by no. 4 seed Fulton, who had a double-digit lead late in a game at Camillus earlier this month before WG rallied to pull it out 75-71.
Meanwhle, in the Class A semifinal at East Syracuse Minoa, it’s the Warriors again facing no. 4 seed Chittenango and its junior sensation, Ryan Moesch, whom it managed to beat twice in the regular season but will have to once more in order to get to Friday’s final at SRC Arena against Jamesville-DeWitt or Central Valley Academy.
Both of these sides would win going away against Frontier League opponents in their respective quarterfinals Friday night, WG handling Watertown 85-47 as Westhill did the same ousting South Jefferson 82-53.
Watertown, the no. 8 seed, arrived at the Class AA quarterfinal off a solid 67-57 opening-round win over Corcoran, and for a short while hung close with the Wildcats, even taking a 16-15 lead early in the second quarter.
Gradually, though, WG’s quality began to show, first on defense, where its man-to-man pressure wore down the Cyclones’ guards and started to produce turnovers that lead to easy baskets on the other end.
A slow flood turned into an avalanche during a decisive 16-0 third-quarter surge, and on the way to a 16th consecutive victory, the Wildcats nearly had five players in double figures.
Gary McLane and Jordan Cain led the way with 19 points apiece, McLane twice converting on breakaway dunks and sparking the defense, too. Sincere Smith, with 16 points, was close behind as Aidan Phelan got 10 points off the bench and all of Joe Cavallo’s nine points came from three 3-pointers.
Not far away, at Westhill, it was South Jefferson in the role of upstart, the no. 9 seed Spartans having won an opening-round game at Carthage 70-63 but quickly discovering that the Warriors were at a much different level.
Westhill jumped out to a 24-11 edge by the end of the first quarter, continuing to push the pace and, again, lean heavily on the duo of senior Kam Langdon and sophomore Eli Prince.
Langdon produced 24 points, tacked on nine rebounds, dished out four assists and earned five steals, while Prince nearly equaled Langdon with 23 points, adding eight rebounds. Eli Welch and Charlie DeMore each had eight points, with Welch getting five rebounds, five assists and four steals as DeMore got four rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Up in the Class AAA sectional tournament, Bishop Ludden wanted to join WG and Westhill in advancing past the quarterfinal round, but could not do so, the no. 5 seed Gaelic Knights falling 69-47 to no. 4 seed Utica Proctor last Saturday afternoon.
With a berth in the semifinals against top seed Liverpool at stake, Ludden would, for most of the game, keep pace with the Raiders, not letting anything get away.
Not until early in the fourth quarter did Proctor start to get away, spreading its production around as Devon Stanley and Qua-Dir John each netted 18 points and Marc Simmons finished with 16 points.
For the Gaelic Knights, whose season concluded at 13-7, Liam Sheard led with 16 points and six rebounds, while Joe Dunham had 14 points and five rebounds. Jahzar Greene gained nine points and five assists as Tim Dunham had eight points and five rebounds.
