Never mind the circumstances of it all — the Baldwinsville boys basketball team was on a roll Wednesday night against Liverpool and wanted to finish the job. Down by 19 going into the fourth quarter, the Bees proceeded to slash away at the deficit, nearly catching up before, at the wire, the Warriors held on to prevail 57-55. For B’ville, any game against Liverpool is an important one — but with a 3-8 mark going into this edition, the Bees needed a win against a high-end foe to prove that the progress it was making under first-year coach Tim Solomon was real. Then it got a huge break when the Warriors took the court without its best player, Jesse Gates, who had largely propelled his team to an 8-4 start with his streaky shooting. But B’ville did not take advantage of this situation right away, and that would prove costly. Liverpool, trying to prove it could do something without Gates, shredded the Bees in the first quarter and raced to a 23-3 lead. All the Bees could do in the next two periods was keep the Warriors from getting further away, and it trailed 51-33 as the final period began. Suddenly, things started to click. Pressure led to turnovers and baskets on the other end, and only the clock appeared to save Liverpool in the end. Kevin Roy, with 16 points, led the late surge, as Casey Murphy worked his way to 13 points and Chris Whelan got 11 points. Mike Guinta had six points. For Liverpool, Adam Misener had 19 points, with Ian Hamm getting 14 points and Cam Jones 11 points.