Lewis Leads Silverdale Girls Past Boyd-Buchanan

Thursday  was a day of celebration for the Silverdale Lady Seahawks and junior sharp-shooter Megan Lewis.

It took an overtime period, but the home-standing Lady Seahawks pulled out a heart-stopping 45-44 victory over the Lady Bucs in a battle for first place in District 5-A.  Lewis scored the game winner with two seconds to play after scoring her 1,000th point on the previous 3.

With the win, Silverdale is now 10-3 overall and 3-1 in district play while the Lady Bucs are now 7-2 overall and 1-1 in district play.

The Boyd-Buchanan boys then evened their record at 4-4 with a 47-38 win over the Silverdale boys, but the second game wasn’t nearly as good as the first one.

All four teams will be involved in the Hixson Christmas Tournament that starts on Friday.  The Lady Bucs will face East Hamilton at Hixson High in the 3 p.m.

opener while the Boyd-Buchanan boys follow that with a game against McCallie.  Silverdale’s girls battle GPS at 4 at Hixson Middle School while Silverdale’s boys play the 5:30 at the middle school gym against Station Camp.

SILVERDALE GIRLS 45, BOYD-BUCHANAN 44: The Lady Seahawks appeared ready to run away with this one early as they took a 22-10 lead into the dressing room at the half.

The third quarter was a different story as the Lady Bucs used a 17-7 advantage to get within two at 29-27 when the fourth quarter began.

Madison Balthrop sank a 3 in the first minute of the final stanza to give the Lady Bucs a 30-29 lead, but six straight points allowed the Lady Seahawks to regain the lead at 35-30 with 4:42 to play.

It got tense in the last minute of regulation as neither team did a very good job of handling defensive pressure. 

Rachael Sanders hit the first of two free throws with 10.1 seconds to play as Silverdale’s lead stretched to 39-37, but Maddie Abed sent the game into overtime with a jumper from the left wing with two seconds remaining.

Maddie Wright, who had been double and triple-teamed all game, converted a three-point play the old fashioned way to give the Lady Bucs a 42-39 lead with 2:45 left in the extra period, but Lewis scored the 1,000^th point of her career on a 3 from the wing nine seconds later to tie the score once more.

Logan Highfield short bank shot at the 2:10 mark gave the Lady Bucs their final lead at 44-42 before Lewis hit a 3 in the waning seconds to give Silverdale the one-point edge and the eventual win.

The Lady Bucs had the ball for one final possession with 1.8 seconds left, but were unable to get off a final shot before the horn sounded.

“Megan is obviously our best shooter and that’s who we wanted taking that last shot,” said Silverdale coach Tim Thompson afterward.

“She’s not a secret any longer, but our goal was to pack it in inside to stop the Wright girl.  We knew they might shoot a bunch of 3s, but we wanted to stop her inside,” he added.

Lewis finished with 20 points – including six from beyond the arc – to lead Silverdale while Emily Harkleroad was next with 11 for the Lady Seahawks.

Balthrop scored 15 points to lead the Lady Bucs while Wright was next with 14.  She also snagged 15 rebounds as the Lady Bucs had a 49-38 advantage on the boards.  Lindsey Sims had 13 rebounds to lead Silverdale while Emily Skelton grabbed eight.

BOYD-BUCHANAN BOYS 47, SILVERDALE 38:  This one was never close as the Silverdale boys went almost eight minutes without scoring after Jordan Delashmitt had tied the score at 2-2 with 6:03 left in the first quarter.

By the time Delashmitt scored again at the 6:05 mark of the second quarter, the Bucs had scored 14 unanswered points and were well on their way to victory.

A short bank shot by Nathan Keylon and a 3 by Delashmitt at the buzzer allowed the Seahawks to get within 20-10 at the break.

Michael Hawkins scored on a layup to start the second half as Silverdale got to within 20-12, but it never got any closer as the Bucs used a 10-0 run at the end of the third and start of the fourth for their biggest lead of the game at 38-19 following a layup by Parris Clarke with 6:52 to play.

“I’m glad we got that one,” said a happy Boyd-Buchanan coach Zach Roddenberry following the game.

“We wanted to come out with intensity and passion at the start.  I felt like an early lead would be a good thing, but they had the momentum after scoring those last five points in the first half.

“We made some goofball mistakes at times, but overall I’m pleased with how we played.  We can be hard to defend at times because it’s never just one guy and you don’t know where we’re coming from. 

“We get another chance to play McCallie Friday afternoon and I hope we’ll play better after they beat us pretty good a couple of weeks ago,” the first-year coach nodded.

Clarke finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the winners and he was the only Boyd-Buchanan player in double figures.

Delashmitt had 10 points to lead Silverdale.

The Bucs had a 35-26 edge in rebounding with Demaris Macon and Cooper Hodge following Clarke with six boards apiece.  Avery Boggess had seven rebounds for Silverdale while Jon Sanders had seven and Hawkins five.

Boyd-Buchanan is now 4-4 overall and 1-1 in 5-A while Silverdale is now 7-6 overall and 2-2 in district play.

GIRLS SUMMARY

BOYD-BUCHANAN  6  4  17  12 5 – 44

SILVERDALE  13  9  7  10  6  --  45

BOYD-BUCHANAN (44) – Abed 5, Highfield 4, Hiland 2, Parker 2, Balthrop 15, Sewell 2, High, Wright 14.

SILVERDALE (44) – Lewis 20, White 3, Harkleroad 11, Smith, Skelton 4, Sims 2, Sanders 5.

3-POINT GOALS: Boyd-Buchanan 5 (Abed, Balthrop 4); Silverdale 8 (Lewis 6, White, Harkleroad).

BOYS SUMMARY

BOYD-BUCHANAN  11  9  14  13  --  47

SILVERDALE   2  8  9  19  --  38

BOYD-BUCHANAN (47) – Walker, Evans 6, Mullinax, Antwine 5, Hodge 7, Covington 2, Rogers 2, Jackson 4, Keebler 2, Willingham, Kent, Clarke 14, Macon 5.

SILVERDALE (38) – Delashmitt 10, Hawkins 7, Keylon 4, Boggess 5, Sanders, Mossburg 5,  Walls 7.

3-POINT GOALS: Boyd-Buchanan 3 (Evans 2, Hodge); Silverdale  3 (Delashmitt, Mossburg, Walls).

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)