SYRACUSE – Two boys basketball programs with deep and rich championship legacies, plus plenty of memorable battles against one another, reunited Friday night at SRC Arena with the Section III Class A championship at stake.
Only one of those teams had Eli Prince – and that made the difference.
With Prince tearing his way through anything Jamesville-DeWitt tried to contain him and scoring 37 points to set a new career standard, Westhill prevailed 71-53 and, by doing so, earned its third consecutive sectional title.
Over the years as both the Warriors and Red Rams piled up sectional and state titles, many superstar players have made significant marks, though rarely at the expense of each other since Westhill and J-D were in separate classes.
Now together, this marked the first time they met in the post-season and provided a perfect bridge for a season which began way back on Nov. 29 when the Warriors edged the Rams 54-41 in the Zebra Classic at Liverpool.
Prince didn’t play in that game, still recuperating from an injury sustained in the fall soccer season. But he was here now and had just surpassed 1,000 career points in Westhill’s 68-44 sectional semifinal win over South Jefferson during a 29-point, 16-rebound effort.
Even that proved a prelude to what Prince would do against J-D, especially in the latter stages of the first half after he hit a 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter to extend his team’s lead to 21-16.
Of Westhill’s last 20 points in the half Prince had 18 of them, giving him 24 overall, exactly matching J-D’s team total.
Even if Prince cooled down a bit in the second half and mostly got his points from free throws, Westhill still built upon its 37-24 halftime advantage, leaning on more balanced scoring along with a defense which rarely allowed J-D any kind of sustained response.
Eli Welch had a stellar effort earning 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists as Prince tacked on 10 rebounds and five assists. Jackson Goodness earned eight points and Jack Hayes added seven points.
Wednesday at Liverpool High School Westhill meets Franklin Academy from Section X in the first round of the regional playoffs. A win here is one of two the Warriors will need to reach the March 22-23 state final four in Binghamton.
