Holiday breaks are far from restful for top high school girls basketball teams.
In two locales far removed from one another Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse demonstrated this with their busy and tough slates, where a milestone was achieved for one area star.
Liverpool standout A’briyah Cunningham officially secured her 1,000th career point on Dec. 27 while leading her side to a tough 67-63 victory over St. Francis (Buffalo) in the Amsterdam Showcase.
Beginning the night with 981 career points, Cunningham had to work most of the game before securing the 1,000th point and, given the way the game unfolded, more was needed.
St. Francis did a strong job solving Liverpool’s normally stout defense. But the state’s no. 7-ranked side held on as Cunningham finished with 27 points helped in a big way by Gracie Sleeth earning a season-best 18 points. Gianna Washington had nine points and Gia Kinsey added eight points.
Then, facing Moore Catholic from Staten Island a night later, Liverpool found itself in another exciting battle, and got through it to defeat the Mavericks 73-63.
A 27-point first quarter set the game’s tone and, though not as torrid from that point forward, Liverpool got through with much more support for Cunningham, who finished with 25 points.
Kinsey earned seven of her 19 points at the free-throw line, with Angie Kohler putting up 13 points and Washington also getting into double figures with 10 points.
C-NS, meanwhile, made its way to Florida for three games of holiday tournament action that got off to a rough start on Dec. 27 with a 55-23 defeat to Nova.
A school from Davie, Florida, Nova played the game at the tempo it wanted and stifled the Northstars, holding it to nine first-half points. Grace Villnave finished with seven points and Kylah Bednar added six points.
In a complete turnaround a day later C-NS hammered Westwood 66-18. Leah Benedict nearly matched the opposition by herself notching 17 points, Meadow Werts adding 13 points as Jilly Howell got eight points, Avery Rumble seven points and Alexis Gaspirini six points.
Ultimately, C-NS went 1-2 in the tournament, falling 52-43 to Northeast in the finale where it held a 37-36 lead through three quarter, only to get outscored 16-6 the rest of the way.
Most of Benedict’s 15 points came from a trio of 3-pointers. Howell finished with 10 points, while Bednar had her second six-point outing of the tournament.
All of this experienced served C-NS well when, playing the same Marcellus side Liverpool beat on Dec. 21, it leaned heavily on its defense to beat the Mustangs 52-41.
They were tight throughout the first half and tied 22-22 at the break before the Northstars outscored Marcellus 14-9 in the third quarter to go in front.
Benedict gained 17 points, with Villnave adding 12 points. Howell and Werts gained eight points apiece. Marcellus standout Tenly Baker had 19 points, four rebounds and four steals, Cece Powell adding 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals. But C-NS held the rest of the Mustangs to just four total field goals.
