Boyd-Buchanan Boys, Silverdale Girls Win Division II-A District 2 Tournament Championships

Suffocating defense and momentum-shifting offensive bursts led the Boyd-Buchanan Buccaneers and Silverdale Lady Seahawks to the Division II-A District 2 Boys’ and Girls’ Tournament Championships Friday night at Notre Dame High School.

 

The Bucs held Notre Dame to just one point in the third quarter, and nine in the second half on their way to a 51-29 victory. Eli Evans led Boyd with 22 points – including six 3-pointers – while Ian Johnson scored 18.

 

In the girls’ contest, the Lady Seahawks – who entered the fourth quarter leading Notre Dame 38-35 – scored the first 12 points of the period to blow the game open on their way to a 58-42 win.

Silverdale’s lone senior, Marlee Montgomery, led all scorers with 21 points, while teammate Laney Bone scored 18.

 

Boyd-Buchanan Boys 51, Notre Dame 29

It seemed like nothing was going right for Boyd-Buchanan for the first quarter and a half of play Friday night. The Bucs only scored three points in the first quarter, and were trailing Notre Dame by 12 after an 8-0 run by the Irish put them up 18-6 with 4:19 to play in the second quarter.

 

To say the Bucs turned it around would be a vast understatement. Beginning with a steal and a lay-up by Johnson at the 3:22 mark of the second period, Boyd outscored Notre Dame 38-6 over the next sixteen minutes of play on the way to a dominant victory.

 

“I’m just really happy for these guys,” said Boyd coach Josh Templeton. “We really wanted to play Notre Dame because they’re such a great opponent, and this is the championship fight you want to be in. They punched us in the mouth in the first half, but that’s the sign of this team with their resilience. We just have a bunch of guys who care a lot about each other and love to compete.”

 

Trailing 20-14 at halftime, the Bucs – well-known for their defense – took the term “defensive intensity” to another level in the third quarter. They held the Irish without a field goal in the period as they outscored them 19-1 to turn the deficit into a 33-21 advantage with one stanza to play.

 

Evans – who only had three points in the first half – finally started to find the bottom of the net in the period. Starting with a jumper from the short-corner after a ball fake behind the arc, the senior drained two from deep in the final 1:06 to get the bench and the Bucs’ fans on their feet.

 

Evans was just getting started, however. Finally having found his spot on the floor, he dropped three more triples from the left corner in the fourth quarter, each one igniting the crowd a little more. As big as all of those shots were, the moment that nearly blew the roof off was when he took a steal the length of the floor and threw down his first dunk of the year with just over two minutes to play to cap off the victory.

 

“I’d say the dunk was more exciting than all the 3’s. It was exciting to get that in this atmosphere and the game that it was in with all of the fans here cheering us on,” said Evans. “It’s just that warrior culture, taking it one possession at a time, one stop at a time, and one score at a time. They threw an early punch at us, but we were only down by six at the half and we knew that the shots just weren’t falling, and that we should be okay once they started falling.”

 

Teammate Johnson put together a nice half himself, scoring 13 of his 18 after the break. But it was his court vision and pinpoint passing that pleased Templeton the most.

 

“Ian Johnson made some great reads finding Eli,” the Bucs’ coach said. “Any time they helped on him a little bit, Ian was right on the money with accurate passes. And once Eli got hot, our guys are so unselfish. Nobody cares if they score a few points or if they score 30. They just want to battle and do whatever the team needs.”

 

Silverdale Baptist Girls 58, Notre Dame 42

 

Heading into the week of the tournament, Silverdale coach Victor Underwood could sense his team was anxious and feeling the stress of being the favorite as the district’s undefeated top seed. That’s why he got them all together and emphasized one word: Joy.

 

“I feel like our girls had been dealing with a lot of self-inflicted pressure over the past couple of days,” said Underwood. “I asked our athletic director to come in and just calm them down a little bit, and what he spent a lot of his time on was joy. He asked them where they originally found joy in this game, and that’s what we kept referring back to. The girls and I actually wrote the word ‘Joy’ on all of our wrists tonight. So any time adversity came, I would just point to my wrist as a reminder to keep having fun.”

 

That joy, along with the stress lifting off of their shoulders, was never more apparent than during the 12-0 burst to start the fourth quarter that put the game away over the Lady Irish. Leading by just three heading into the final frame, Tessa Gibson widened the advantage to five with a fast break lay-up.

 

But it was back-to-back 3-pointers by Ryleigh Hoover from each corner that opened up the floodgates for the Lady Seahawks. After playing sparingly in her sophomore season, Underwood said she’d put in the work, and it paid off at the right time.

 

“Ryleigh is a kid who didn’t play much a year ago, but she got in the gym this summer and she’s made a lot of big shots for us this year,” said Underwood.

 

Gibson followed with a bucket on a drive down the right side of the lane, and Bone made a shot that looked like a mirror image a minute later as Silverdale broke the game open, leading 50-35. Notre Dame star point guard Kate Ford hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3:07 to play, but it was too little, too late as Silverdale outscored the Lady Irish 20-7 in the final period on its way to the victory.

 

While Hoover might have made the big shots late, it was Montgomery who commanded the game. With Bone – who was just named a finalist for the Division II-A Miss Basketball – being double-teamed to start the game, Montgomery took control and asserted herself on the offensive end, scoring 11 of the Lady Seahawks’ 13 points in the first quarter as they led 13-12.

 

“Coach has really challenged me to be a vocal leader and to be aggressive because I’m the only senior,” said Montgomery. “So it’s really important for me to step up and lead and keep the rest of the girls calm and help them realize that we’ve got the game under control. I was just so proud of my teammates tonight. I’ve played with them for four years now, and I’ve watched them grow and they’ve helped me grow, and we’ve just held each other up along the way.”

 

“With Laney drawing so much attention at the start of the game, Marlee really took over early. That was just her senior leadership,” her coach added. “Marlee’s been here before, and that showed tonight. We actually scripted our first four (minutes) tonight, and Marlee kind of went off-script. She got great looks at the basket, and we want our players to play free, and that’s what she did.”

 

Bone finally found her game offensively in the second quarter, scoring eight points. Ford also began to find the bottom of the basket in the period, where she scored nine of her team-high 16 points as the Lady Irish led 26-23 at the break.

 

Silverdale finally wrestled the lead back on back-to-back 3-pointers by Montgomery and Hoover midway through the third period. Montgomery gave her team the lead for good with 1:24 left in the period on a drive to the left side of the lane, where she laid it up and in and drew the foul, making the free throw to give her team a three-point advantage.

 

Notre Dame sophomore Kenzie Campbell chipped in 12 points for the Lady Irish.

 

 

GIRLS GAME SUMMARY

  

NOTRE DAME   12   14     9     7   --   42

SILVERDALE     13   10   15   20   --   58

NOTRE DAME (42) – Kate Ford 16, Kenzie Campbell 12, Sheppard 6, Mullins 5, Fillauer 2, Skaggs 1, Distasio, Soutuyo, Wolf, Daniels, J. McGann, E. McGann.

SILVERDALE (58) – Marlee Montgomery 21, Laney Bone 18, Hoover 9, Te. Gibson 7, Lamb 3, Jarrell, Stiner, Kugler, Denning, Renegar, To. Gibson, Johnson, Cole, Bolton.

3-POINT GOALS: Notre Dame 7 (Campbell 3, Ford 2, Sheppard 2); Silverdale 5 (Hoover 3, Montgomery 2).

 

BOYS GAME SUMMARY

  

BOYD-BUCHANAN   3   11   19   18   --   51

NOTRE DAME         10   10     1     8   --   29

BOYD-BUCHANAN (51) – Eli Evans 22, Ian Johnson 18, Edmondson 8, Lopez 3, Oliver, Ca. Johnson, Wamack, Emery, Kolff, Gay, Craw, Co. Johnson.

NOTRE DAME (29) – Spurgeon 8, Smith 8, Wilkerson 6, H. Robinson 3, Price 3, Vaughn 1, Jones, Houston, C. Robinson, Summitt, Kelly, G. Fillauer, Turley, A. Fillauer.

3-POINT GOALS: Boyd-Buchanan 12 (Evans 6, I. Johnson 3, Edmondson 2, Lopez); Notre Dame 3 (H. Robinson, Spurgeon, Price).

 

(Contact Kevin Llewallyn at Kevin.llewallyn@gmail.com)