Section 3 girls take basketball playoffs to Onondaga Community College
Home court is no longer an issue for Section III's girls basketball games. With the quarterfinals wrapping up Thursday, the remaining games will be played on the Syracuse campus of Onondaga Community College with a strong Center State Conference representation in the smallest classes.
The Tri-Valley League is down to Class AA semifinalist Rome Free Academy while Center State Conference has three of the four semifinal spots in Class C and three more in Class D. Semifinals for boys and girls will be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the girls returning to contest their five finals March 4.
More:Section 3 girls basketball scores for the 2022-23 season
The Class A semifinals are Friday with classes AA and D Saturday and classes B and C Sunday. Weedsport and Port Byron were scheduled to decide the final semifinal spot Thursday after a winter storm shuffled some of the quarterfinal schedule Tuesday and Wednesday.
Weedsport, the No. 1 seed, defeated Port Byron Thursday for the final spot in a Class C Final Four that includes No. 2 Cooperstown, No. 4 Herkimer and No. 6 Westmoreland, all from the Center State Conference.
No. 1 West Canada Valley, No. 2 Poland and No. 4 Hamilton are the Center State Conference trio joining Copenhagen, the reigning state champion, in Class D.
Rome Free Academy, seeded second, beat Tri-Valley League and Oneida County rival Proctor to earn its spot in the Class AA Final Four with No. 1 Auburn, No. 3 Liverpool and No. 4 Cicero-North Syracuse, the defending champion.Here's a look at how the five classes shape up with games being played in both Allyn Hall and SRC Arena.
Class A
No. 2 Central Square (14-7) vs. No. 6 Syracuse-Christian Brothers Academy (12-9), Friday, 5 p.m.
No. 1 Indian River (19-2) vs. No. 4 Jamesville-DeWitt (13-8), Friday, 7 p.m.
Christian Brothers Academy of Syracuse shut the Tri-Valley League out of the Class A semifinal with its 61-34 win at No. 3 New Hartford Tuesday. The Brothers (12-9) had lost their last two games of the regular season and four of their last six.
Top seed Indian River (19-2) has won 14 of its last 15 games, having lost only to Genera Brown, the No. 1 seed in Class B. The Warriors rolled to a 60-24 win in their playoff opener.
Central Square (14-7) won its regular season finale and playoff opener after losing three of its previous four games.Jamesville-DeWitt (13-8) has also won its last two games after losing two in a row, the first at Auburn, the top seed in Class AA.
Class AA
No. 2 Rome Free Academy (18-3) vs. No. 3 Liverpool (18-3), Saturday, noon
No. 1 Auburn (19-2) vs. No. 4 Cicero-North Syracuse (15-6), Saturday, 1:45 p.m.
Rome Free Academy (18-3) carries a 15-game winning streak into the semifinals with top scorer Amya McLeod having scored 33 points in Tuesday's playoff win over the proctor Raiders. The Black Knights' three losses came in succession in December and started with a 70-57 defeat at home against Cicero-North Syracuse, the defending sectional champion.
Liverpool (18-3) has won four games in a row and 13 of its last 14.The Warriors knocked off Bishop Ludden of Syracuse in the quarterfinals but lost a 68-64 decision early in the season at Rome Free Academy.
Top seed Auburn (19-2) has not lost since its first game of the new year and carries a 13-gme winning streak with a 21-point quarterfinal win over Fayetteville-Manlius.
Defending champion Cicero-North Syracuse (15-6) has three straight wins and six wins in seven games around a loss to Liverpool two weeks ago. The North Stars advanced with a 30-point win in their playoff opener.
Class D
No. 2 Poland (20-2) vs. No. 3 Copenhagen (18-4), Saturday, 3:45 p.m.
No. 1 West Canada Valley (20-1) vs. No. 4 Hamilton (16-6), Saturday, 5:15 p.m.
West Canada Valley and Poland split decisions in Center State Conference Division III competition and took turns knocking each other off the top spot in the New York State Sportswriters Association's Class D poll. They're currently nos. 4 and 5 in the state and seeded first and second in the tournament.
Copenhagen beat Poland 58-40 in last year's sectional final and won three more games to claim Section III's first Class D state championship in the five-class competition format. Two of Copenhagen's four losses this season were outside the section and one was against Class A Watertown. The Golden Knights (18-4) have won their last five games since a 52-49 loss to Alexandria. Leading scorer Aubree Smykla (19.6 ppg) is averaging 30 points in her last four games and scored 32 in Tuesday's quarterfinal win over Alexandria.
Poland (20-2) has won eight games in a row and 16 of 17 since its loss to West Canada Valley. The Tornadoes' last five games have been decided by 15 points or more, and they won the West Canada Valley rematch by a 50-37 score. Senior Logan Cookinham passed the 1,000-point barrier in Allyn Hall last year and leads the team with an average of 23.6 points per game this season with a high of 36 against Fabius-Pompey in Poland's first playoff game. Maddison Haver (8.7), Sydney Tabor (8-1), and Morgan Weigand (7.6) all average better than seven and one-half points, and Weigand leads the team with 35 three-pointers.
West Canada Valley (20-1) started this season with 16 consecutive wins after a 19-win season with a run to the sectional finals in Class C last year. They earned the only bye into the quarterfinals and beat Oriskany for a third time Tuesday. Senior Reese Fellows (17-3 ppg) reached 1,000 career rebounds earlier this season and is closing in on 1,000 points. Analyce Grabowski (10.5), Hanna Burdick (8-8) and Bella Borden (5.7) have combined to hit 119 three-point shots, and Erin Gorinshek averages 9.4 points while leading the team with 77 blocked shots.
Hamilton (16-6) has won three games in a row and six out of seven with a Poland loss in the middle. Four of the Emerald Knights' six losses were against Poland, West Canada Valley and Class C semifinalists Cooperstown and Westmoreland. Logan Langel and Reagan Hope both average 10.1 points for Hamilton which has been without leading scorer Lindsey Speer (15.0 ppg) since mid January.
Class B
No. 3 Cortland (18-4) vs. No. 7 Marcellus (15-7), Sunday, 11 a.m.
No. 1 General Brown (20-2) vs. No. 4 Westhill (18-4), Sunday, 12:45 p.m.
Holland Patent and Oneida from the Tri-Valley League and Adirondack from the Center State Conference were all beaten in the quarterfinals, leaving the area without a representative in the Final Four.
Marcellus (15-7) upset No. 2 Mexico Academy in the quarterfinals and has won seven games in a row. Next up is Cortland (18-4), the No. 3 seed and winner of five straight games and 11 of 12.
Top seed General Brown (20-2) lost back-to-back games to bigger schools in January and has won 10 consecutive games for the second time this season. Westhill (18-4) has won four games in a row after Skaneateles ended its 11-game streak earlier this month.
Class C
No. 2 Cooperstown (17-5) vs. No. 6 Westmoreland (14-8), Sunday, 2:45 p.m.
No. 4 Herkimer (16-6) vs. No. 1 Weedsport (18-4), Sunday, 4:15 p.m.
Section III will crown a new champion this season and Sunday's games will select two new finalists.
West Canada Valley, the runner-up last year, is now the top seed in Class D, and 2022 champion Waterville entered the playoffs seeded 14th and upset No. 3 Jordan-Elbridge before being eliminated with a one-point loss to Westmoreland, a team that had beaten the Indians twice before in league play.
Cooperstown (17-5) went unbeaten in Division II of the Center State Conference and heads to Syracuse with 11 consecutive wins. Senior Dani Seamon leads the team with an average of 19.2 points per game and has topped 20 12 times with a high of 30 in a one-point win over Little Falls.
Herkimer (16-6) shared the Division II title with Dolgeville after both teams passed Little Falls in the final week of the regular season. The Magicians have beaten Little Falls and Dolgeville again in their first two playoff games, extending their winning streak to 10 games. Sophomore Madison Marusic (13.6 ppg) is the leading scorer in a balanced attack that includes Charity Dygert (9.3), Arrissa Bunker (8.5) and Bailey Bray (8.5).
Westmoreland (14-8) got by Waterville Tuesday after a 51-44 win over Thousand Islands in the first round. The Bulldogs had lost four of their final five games of the regular season, including two to Cooperstown. Madalynne Enos, a sophomore, averages 15.3 points while Ella McGregor contributes 11.3 points.
The final semifinal spot went to the top seed, Weedsport (18-4), when the Warriors defeated Port Byron 48-33 Thursday. Freshman Kayla Flask scored 19 points in that win, matching her total from Weedsport's previous playoff win over LaFayette. Kayla Flask (12.6 ppg) is one of three Warriors averaging 12 points or more along with senior Morgan Flask (12.1) and Mallory Brown (12.0), another freshman. The Warriors have won their last six games and have not been beaten within Section III this season; they finished last season 18-5 with a loss to Waterville in the semifinals.
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Section 3 girls take basketball playoffs to Onondaga Community College
