SYRACUSE – Here again was the Liverpool boys basketball team basking in the pressure-filled cauldron of the Section III Class AAA championship game at SRC Arena, ready to again claim a championship.
Less than a minute from that prize, though, the Warriors got rejected, both on a literal and figurative basis.
Bishop Ludden came up with the plays it needed, from two blocks on one end to a go-ahead basket and then four clinching free throws, to defeat Liverpool 54-50 last Saturday and take over as sectional champions.
Entering that final minute the Warriors led 49-48. It had broken a 46-46 tie with Danny Dunn’s 3-pointer with 1:49 to play and, though Trey Dennis scored for the Gaelic Knights seconds later, had possession of the ball with a chance to build on its slim margin.
On a drive to the basket, Ludden forward Liam Sheard blocked a shot and Ludden gained possession, with Jahzar Greene hitting a runner with 22.9 seconds to play to put the Gaelic Knights in front.
Still with a chance to win it, Liverpool seemed to have a great opportunity with less than 10 seconds to play, but Freddy Fowler saw Sheard block his shot and get fouled.
Sheard sank both free throws. Up by three, with 4.0 seconds left Ludden immediately fouled Fowler, who made one free throw but missed the second. A scramble led to a Warriors foul and Joe Dunham converted both free throws to clinch it.
In many ways the fact that the Gaelic Knights even made it close was remarkable given that it was shut out for more than five minutes at the game’s outset and netted just a single field goal before Greene converted in the last seconds of the first quarter.
Liverpool built a 14-4 advantage early in the second period and was up 31-20 after Sean Frawley’s 3-pointer two minutes into the third quarter. Both times, Ludden rallied, with Sheard the catalyst as he poured in a game-high 22 points.
In large part Sheard punished the Warriors for focusing its defense on Greene, whose 12 points was not even half his season scoring average. Fowler and his teammates were effective shutting off driving lanes for Greene, but in the paint Sheard would grab nine rebounds and add five blocks, two of them in that fateful final minute.
Dunn led Liverpool with 17 points, hitting on a trio of 3-pointers, while Frawley stepped up with 12 points and Alex Trombley added 11 points. But Fowler was held to nine points after he netted the last 13 in the Warriors’ semifinal win over previously unbeaten Rome Free Academy.
