In Syracuse on Saturday afternoon, Westhill 58, Canton 49
All photos courtesy of Jay Berkman
The Canton Boys Basketball team took the long trip down Route 81 to Syracuse on Saturday to face the reigning NYSPHSAA Class B State Champion Westhill Basketball team. This storied Syracuse program has been a dominant force in Class B Basketball for the past decade. The Golden Bears, coming off one of its finest post-season runs in school history scheduled the game as a barometer to determine where their 2023-2024 abilities may reside. Having lost some key individuals off of last season’s team, including 6’9″ Ayomi Odetoyinbo who re-classified to attend school at Our Savior Lutheran in the Bronx, the young Bears have been eager to get started.
The first quarter action was a classic sea-saw battle with both teams showing the other their hands on offense. A balanced effort by the Bears exhibited scoring from Ethan Francey with five points, Ryan Jones with four, Talan Green’s sharpshooting with three and Zadok Roiger’s rounding out their 14 first quarter. The score was good enough to edge the home team by one point as the Bears found themselves leading 14-13.
Westhill responded by winning quarter two by five and took a four-point lead into the half. Second half points were equally difficult to come by with the home team putting up 11 third-quarter points to the Bears’ nine. Despite a valiant comeback by the Bears cutting into the Westhill fourth quarter lead several times, the home team would make enough free throws down the stretch to secure their second victory in two days, having defeated Henniger High School on Friday evening 67-36.
Jones lead all scorers in the game with 32 points followed by Ethan Francey and Talan Green with seven each. Zadok Roiger and Jackson Ames rounded out the scoring for the Bears.
