For a full week, the Liverpool boys basketball team worked on its game and went over what went wrong late in a Dec. 6 defeat to Rome Free Academy in the Peppino’s Invitational.
When it returned to action last Friday night, Liverpool would do so tested again, only at reigning sectional Class A champion Westhill. This clash of two defending sectional champions would end up going 50-46 in Westhill’s favor.
That it did so had to be a bit disappointing for Liverpool given the way the game started. With steady production and strong defense the visitors built a 22-11 advantage early in the second quarter.
But despite getting little from star junior Eli Prince the rest of the half Westhill moved within range and then tied it 28-28 just after intermission.
Prince saved his big work for the third quarter, netting 10 points to get his team out in front. Liverpool countered, and the two sides traded baskets deep into the final period.
Ultimately Westhill’s defense would hold Liverpool without a field goal in the game’s final five minutes. Prince’s fadeaway jumper with 2:15 left and two key throws with 21 seconds to play made it 49-46, and he hit a clinching free throw after Sean Frawley’s tying 3-pointer in the waning seconds fell short.
Though Alex Trombley got 15 points, Freddie Fowler 14 points and Giancarlo Galimi 11 points, they all trailed Prince, who with 26 points had more than half of Westhill’s output.
This was the same Westhill side Cicero-North Syracuse worked hard to beat in its Dec. 7 opener. Far easier for the Northstars was last Wednesday’s 62-36 victory over Christian Brothers Academy at North Syracuse Junior High School.
The Brothers had already played three games this season (including a loss to Liverpool in the Zebra Classic Nov. 29), but this was the first time CBA had something close to a full roster on hand with players who were part of a second straight state Class AA championship.
Not caring about any of this, C-NS jumped out 20-10 in the first quarter and then really made it defense count, limiting the Brothers to five points in the second period and leading 30-15 at the break.
Continuing to add to the margin, the Northstars saw Andrew Benedict get a double-double of 24 points and 12 rebounds, adding three blocks. By themselves, Benedict and Nate Francis, who had 18 points, outscored the entire CBA roster, with Sam Werts contributing nine points.
On Saturday, C-NS traveled west to face Niagara Falls, who still remembered how C-NS beat them 60-57 last January even though the Wolverines eventually reached the state final four.
Here, as it did then, the Northstars prevailed, a 55-45 victory again predicated on its defense which did its best work in the opening minutes even as the offense took a while to get going.
Holding Niagara Falls to six points in the first quarter, C-NS then warmed up in the second, answering every Wolverines charge and stretching the margin to 32-22 while maintaining it the rest of the way.
The key here was the emergence of Miy’Jon McDowell as a scoring threat, his 10 points matching Francis and only trailing the 15 from Benedict as Larry Nesci added six points.
Having moved to 3-0, C-NS would go to West Genesee on Tuesday before the Wildcats met Liverpool later in the week just as the Northstars went to Auburn.
