By MATT CRESS
MARENGO — While Silver Creek may have limped into the postseason, the start of sectional play may have been exactly what the Dragons needed to get back up to speed.
Speed was the operative word for the Silver Creek attack on Wednesday, as the Dragons pushed the pace and pushed Mid-Southern Conference rival Charlestown out of action in an 88-71 victory over the Pirates in the quarterfinals of the Class 3A Crawford County Sectional.
The Dragons (12-9) advanced to meet the host Wolfpack (13-8) — winners over Mitchell in Wednesday’s other matchup — in the second of Friday’s two semifinals at 7:30 p.m.
The loss ended a dismal campaign for the Pirates (2-19), who lost their top six players from last year’s sectional championship team and began the year with 10 straight losses. After showing progress with back-to-back wins in late January, Charlestown failed to get a win in February and dropped its final nine games, five of those losses coming by less than 10 points.
“That’s been the story of our season,” said Pirate coach Sean Smith. “Other than three or four games where we just didn’t come to play, we’ve lost a lot of games in two or three minutes; sometimes one minute or less. We haven’t played all 32 minutes all season.”
Midway through the second quarter, Charlestown repeated the pattern.
Down 18-11, the Pirates rallied behind six straight points from sophomore Anthony Lloyd and a steal-and-layup from Bryan Williams pulled Charlestown to within 22-21 with 3:33 left in the opening half.
But Silver Creek regrouped after a timeout and went on the run, scoring the game’s next 16 points thanks to three baskets from center Nick Townsend, five points from Cody Jackson and a series of assists from high-scoring guard Spencer Robinson.
“We’ve always been good in transition,” said Dragon coach John Bradley. “When we get Spencer sharing the ball like that, we can be very good. He wasn’t concerned about scoring at all and everyone got involved.”
Silver Creek could do no wrong to open the second half as well. On its first possession of the half, Robinson fired a pass directly off the face of forward WIll McCall, but the ball fell into the hands of Townsend who easily scored. McCall, who had 11 points in the second half en route to 13 overall, scored on the next play and a layup from Michael Bradley staked Silver Creek to a 44-23 edge, its largest of the night.
Charlestown, however, refused to give in. Matt Wyatt hit a 3 to kick off a 10-2 run and then Damon Vest calmly buried back-to-back 3s and hit two free throws to make it 54-44 with three minutes left in the third.
“They way they started shooting I thought ‘oh boy,’” said Bradley. “I thought we did a good job on (Chad) Brady and Williams, but when some other guys starting hitting some shots, I thought we got soft. I thought we played great in the second quarter, but the third was just the opposite.
The Dragons went back to what got them the lead — attacking the basket. Matt Bonniville and Jackson each scored on transition layups and a turnaround hook by Townsend pushed the lead back to 15, at 61-46.
The Pirates would close the gap to less than 10 points on two occasions over the final eight minutes largely on the shoulders of Brady, who pulled up for a deep 3 and took a steal the length of the court to make it 69-61. A putback by Lloyd, who was quiet for much of the second half due to foul trouble, made it 70-63 with more than three minutes left to play.
Each time, Silver Creek answered the bell, scoring 10 of the game’s next 13 points and finishing things off at the foul line, where it went 24-of-30 on the night.
“We would get it to eight or nine points and there would always be a big call or they’d get an easy bucket in transition,” said Smith. “We didn’t want to press them, but when we got behind in the second quarter, we had to. They’re a tough team to press, they have a lot of guards who do a great job.”
It ended up being exactly what was needed for a Silver Creek team that opened the year 7-1 and looked like one of the area’s premier squads. But a loss to Providence in their annual holiday tournament seemed to start a chain reaction of injuries and head-scratching losses that saw the Dragons drop eight of their final 12 games.
“I felt like on the bus ride over that we’ve gained confidence and were ready to play,” Bradley said. “We know there are a lot of doubters, the kids know there are a lot of doubters and we feel like we’ve got something to prove.”
Jackson scored 20 points — 15 of which came in the first half — to lead Silver Creek, which beat Crawford County in double overtime on Dec. 16. Robinson had just one field goal, but still added 16 points and six assists. Townsend finished with 17 points.
Brady had 16 points in his final performance for the Pirates, which will also graduate Wyatt, Damon Vest and Terry Crenshaw.
“All four of them are great kids,” Smith said. “We knew every day that they’d give 100 percent and that’s what they did. Chad and Terry gave us a lot of our offense. Damon had never played basketball until high school, but really stepped up and hit some big 3s tonight and Matt was a good defender.
“We have a lot of potential to rebound and have a nice season (next year), but potential means you haven’t done what you are capable of doing. But hopefully we’ve learned some things this year and we can turn that into some wins next season.”
CHARLESTOWN 9 14 29 19—71
SILVER CREEK 16 22 25 25—88
Charlestown (2-19) — Wyatt 5, Vest 11, Brady 16, Williams 5, Lloyd 15, Crenshaw 12, Poteet 2, Coyne 5.
Silver Creek (12-9) — Robinson 16, Eckert 11, Bradley 9, Jackson 20, McCall 13, Townsend 17, Bonniville 2.
Three-point field goals — Charlestown 6 (Vest 3, Brady 2, Wyatt); Silver Creek 2 (Jackson 2).
Rebounds — Silver Creek 29 (Townsend 7); Charlestown 21 (Brady 5).
Turnovers — Silver Creek 13, Charlestown 15.
