Second-year Cicero-North Syracuse girls basketball coach Rob Siechen received a text before the Northstars' Section III Class AA title game against Baldwinsville on Saturday night.
It was former Northstars coach Eric Smith, who won two state titles and nine sectional championships with the Northstars over 11 seasons. Siechen, trying for his first Section III Championship with C-NS, answered right back.
"I told him I had big shoes to fill today," Siechen said. "This is a completely different group of kids, so it's fun to see them work hard and take the championship."
The 2021-22 Northstars (16-4) wrote the latest chapter in the school's rich history of girls basketball. They trailed Baldwinsville by two at the start of the fourth quarter but beat the Bees 53-45 at Onondaga Community College.
Alita Carey-Santangelo scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the second half. Baldwinsville pressed Alexa Kulakowski, C-NS' leading scorer, which opened room for Carey-Santangelo.
Carey-Santangelo bobbed around Bees' defenders and found lanes to the basket.
"I just had to make my layups," Carey-Santangelo said. "I felt like I definitely needed to drive to the hoop and get there. It ended up working out in the end."
The No. 1 seed Northstars beat the No. 2 Bees three times this season. Baldwinsville also played C-NS close in the two regular-season matchups. C-NS beat their sectional rival by just one in early January.
"We knew that us two were going to be the ones facing each other in the end," Carey-Santangelo said about Baldwinsville. "We just had to want it more than them."
The two schools played to six lead changes in the first half. Baldwinsville scored late baskets to lead C-NS into halftime and before the fourth quarter.
C-NS, led by Carey-Santangelo and Kathleen Taru's four fourth-quarter points, opened the final eight minutes on a 10-0 run. Carey-Santangelo squeaked inside the paint and banked in a one-handed reverse layup in the final frame, which sent the Northstars bench and fan section into a blue and green craze.
Siechen made a defensive adjustment on the Bees' pick-and-rolls in the intermission before the fourth quarter. The Northstars prevented the Bees from entering the post uncontested and contained them on the perimeter.
Baldwinsville didn't score in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter until Kyrah Wilbur hit a pair of free throws. The Bees didn't land a fourth-quarter field goal until 1:10 remained in the game -- an Alexandra Bednarczyk 3-pointer that reeled the Bees within three.
The Northstars won the foul-and-free-throw game and held on despite a late deep ball from Sydney Huhtala.
"These kids are a great bunch of kids. I don't think there's one kid that I would consider to be mean, and it hurts us sometimes because we're too nice on the floor," Siechen said with a smile. "But it's fun to see them all cheer for each other and root each other on." C-NS will play Albany at Hudson Valley Community College next Saturdayat 6pm .
