ONONDAGA COUNTY – Once more the Baldwinsville boys basketball program has gone through a coaching change.

Citing family reasons, Patrick Beilein departed in July, having in his brief tenure brought the Bees back into prominence for the first time since J.J. Starling left for prep school on his eventual journey to Syracuse University.

B’ville went 11-10 a season ago and narrowly lost to Rome Free Academy in the Section III Class AA quarterfinals. Still, the Bees had to again seek a new leader on the bench – and it didn’t look too far this time around.

Tom Brown is now in charge, having played at Le Moyne College when Beilein coached there, and he hoped to continue B’ville’s climb to the top.

Brown would win in his first outing as head coach Monday night, with B’ville hosting Henninger at Baker High School and jumping out to a big early lead on the way to defeating the Black Knights 65-49.

A combination of hot shooting and heavy defense helped the Bees build a double-digit edge by the end of the first quarter and increase that margin to 34-16 by halftime.

Only in the fourth quarter did Henninger start to make up ground, but it proved too late, especially since M.J. Young had already worked his way to 30 points, more than twice the total of Black Knights leading scorer Nymeer Dozier, who had 13 points.

To help out Young, Matt Pope sank four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points overall, twice the total of TeiShawn Wade, who had seven points.

Testing itself against reigning sectional Class A champion Westhill Wednesday night, the Bees ran into a defense which never let it do much for long stretches of the night, leading to a 68-39 defeat.

Things were close until the second quarter, when Westhill outscored the Bees 20-8. Still, that didn’t satisfy the hosts, who closed on a 20-6 burst to build upon its already comfortable advantage.

All told, B’ville had just 10 field goals, eight of them by Young, who finished with 17 points, and Pope, who got 12 points. To lead Westhill, Eli Prince produced 25 points, helped by 12 points from Kamari Lewis and 10 points from Jack Hayes.

Yet another high-profile road game is in store next Tuesday at reigning sectional Class AAA champion Liverpool before the Bees depart a day later for the KSA Tournament at the Gaylord Palms Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.