Four games, four different venues, but the same result – the Cicero-North Syracuse boys basketball team ending up with more points than Utica Proctor at the final buzzer. Of those four, perhaps Thursday night’s 55-47 victor by the Northstars over the Raiders was the most unlikely, because it took place in Proctor’s home gymnasium – a place where few road teams ever find success. However, CNS broke the trend, maybe because it already had the confidence necessary to beat the Raiders, based on topping them twice last season – once at home, again in the Section III Classs AA final at Utica Auditorium – and a third time this season at Henninger High School on Dec. 17. That last encounter, a 69-65 victory, saw the Northstars ably handle the Raiders’ defensive pressure. Since that point, the Raiders had won 11 in a row and figured that, finally getting CNS on its home floor, it could start to turn the series around. For a half, it did turn around. Both sides were stubborn playing to an 11-11 first-quarter tie, but in the second quarter Proctor started to convert with regularity, especially Jayson Jackson, who would lead both sides with 19 points. At the break, CNS trailed 29-25, but its own defense was doing an exceptional job limiting the damage of Walkery Mills (just nine points) and T’Andre Richardson, who manged just two points – a sharp contrast to the 24 points he had back in December. Still, the Northstars trailed 38-32 in the third quarter when Elliott Boyce Jr. hit on a four-point play, cutting the margin to two. That ignited a 13-1 run which put CNS ahead for good as Boyce, Zach Coleman and Vaughndell Brantley led the push. Effective in the 2-3 zone defense head coach John Haas had switched to for the second half, the Northstars held Proctor without a field goal for more than nine minutes, a stretch lasting deep into the final period. Proctor wasn’t done, though, closing back within 51-47 with nearly three minutes left. But CNS did not allow anything more, forcing consecutive Raider turnovers and closing things out. Coleman led with 15 points, six of them free throws. Boyce got seven of his 13 points at the foul line as Brantley finished with nine points and Josh WIlliams threw in seven points. Other than Richardson, no Proctor player scored in double figures, and it missed 10 of the 19 foul shots it tried. With the win, CNS improved to 14-2, having handed the Raiders both of its losses this season – and vastly improving its chances that it may gain the top seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs that start less than two weeks from now.