It was a busy night all across Central New York as teams were vying to be among the "final four" in the respective classes in Section III.
We'll start in Class AA, where the Henninger Black Knights moved on to the Section III semifinals after an impressive 72-51 win over the West Genesee Wildcats. Marquies Young led Henninger with 21 points and 14 rebounds, while Tevin Chisholm contributed with 18 points. Trevor Smith led the Wildcats with 14 points in a losing cause.
The top seed in Class AA, Utica Proctor, beat CBA by 13 in Utica.
Fayetteville-Manlius faced a valiant effort from 6th seeded Nottingham, who led the Hornets by three at the halftime break. But 29 points from sophomore John Schurman helped F-M pull away for a 66-54 victory and what seems like a yearly occurance, a matchup with Henninger in the semifinals.
In girls Class AA basketball, Breanna Stewart scored 32 points for the C-NS Northstars, despite not being needed in the late stages of an 89-25 win over Rome Free Academy. Brittany Paul contributed 17 points, while Sarah Bowles added 15 points, as the Northstars advanced to the sctional semifinals by improving to 16-3 on the season.
F-M also advanced, by way of a solid win over Utica-Proctor.
In Class A, The Jamesville-Dewitt Red Rams advanced with a convincing 81-56 victory over Whitesboro. After only a 12 point game at the half, J-D was able to close the game on a 40-28 run. J-D big men Tyler Cavanaugh and Dajuan Coleman dominated the paint, combining for 49 points. Whitesboro’s TJ Borza tallied 14 in the loss. The Jamesville-Dewitt girls cruised to victory as well, also defeating Whitesboro.
Oddly enough, the ES-M and Cortland boys and girls basketball teams played each other as well tonight, and Cortland took both games.
The battle of so-called bracket busters was in Class B, where 13th seeded Westhill took on 12th seeded Marcellus. It's Marcellus though, who will keep the Cinderella season going after posting a 43-35 win over their rivals from Westhill.
Here's a look at some other scores from the Section III playoffs:
Boys Playoffs:
Class AA:
(5) C-NS 60, (4) Oswego 51
C-NS will play Utica Proctor and F-M will play against Henninger
Class A:
(7) Mexico 55, (2) Indian River 52
Mexico will play Cortland in semifinals,
J-D will play against New Hartford
Class B:
(1) Bishop Ludden 81, (8) Hannibal 40
Ludden will meet Marcellus in the semifinals
Class C:
(1) Cooperstown 70, (8) Saquoit Valley 39
(5) Syracuse Academy of Science 76, (4) Syracuse ITC 64
Cooperstown meets Syracuse Academy of Science in semifinals.
Class D:
Faith Heritage 55, Madison 37
Girls Scores:
Class AA:
(1) C-NS 89, RFA 25
C-NS meets rival Liverpool in semifinals
(2) F-M 56, (7) Utica-Proctor 44
F-M meets West Genesee in semifinals