Warriors top Knights on buzzer beater
SILVER CREEK — Prior to the season, Salamanca head coach Adam Bennett asked Mike Collins to switch from forward to point guard.
Bennett’s 6-foot-2-inch senior struggled with the change.
Up until Friday night at Silver Creek that is.
Down 51-50 after a pair of Bryant Jones free throws put the Black Knights (7-7, 0-5) back on top by one, Collins sank a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Warriors (11-3, 4-1) a stunning 53-51 win during CCAA East 1 boys basketball action.
“This is the first game where I’ve seen that confidence back in his shot,” Bennett said. “And to step up and hit a shot like that, with as much on the line as we had, I’m incredibly proud of him.”
Silver Creek led by as many as 16 — 31-15 with 1:35 remaining in the first half — but could not contend with Salamanca’s switch from man-to-man defense to the 3-2 zone in the second half.
“We normally do really well against zone (defenses),” Silver Creek head coach Rob Genco said. “But we weren’t moving, we got real stagnant. We were up-tempo against (man-to-man defense) and then when they switched to zone it bogged us down.”
“I don’t think they expected us to play it,” Bennett added. “We’re normally a man-to-man team and typically when that happens, it takes a while to get used to it. So we tried to turn it on and turn it off and we played a lot of different things in the first half, but we knew we could switch into that 3-2 (zone) once things got going in the second half. We talk about scoring all the time, but defense and rebounding was the reason we were able to come back (Friday).”
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That come back began late in the second quarter. After a 15-6 run gave the Black Knights their 16-point lead, Collins hit two of his four 3-pointers to send the game into halftime with Silver Creek up 34-21.
“I thought he really lifted us at the end of the first half, he kept us in it,” Bennett said. “And we knew we played our worst basketball of the year in the first half. For whatever reason, guys weren’t really feeling it. But when we came out in the second half our guys fought hard.”
The Warriors continued to seize that momentum in the third quarter, as they switched to the 3-2 zone, created turnovers and transition offense that allowed them to outscore the home team 13-6 in the frame.
“They’ve got a lot of size up top, so that length makes passing lanes hard,” Genco said. “And they got their hands on a bunch (of passes), and they were really active in their zone. But we bogged down as soon as they switched.”
“We start four guys of 6-2,” Bennett said. “And we’ve got a pretty lengthy and athletic bunch, so we definitely wanted to take advantage of that, too.”
With a distinctive height advantage guarding the perimeter, Silver Creek was unable to get the ball inside to sophomore big man Brady Woleben, who scored just seven of his game-high 22 points in the second half.
“He was averaging 21 points after the first seven games then we hadn’t got the same production,” Genco said. “We needed that production to be able to compete and win games and we got it (Friday), so his points were huge. His all-around play was big, so I thought he did really well. He gave us a lot and getting 22 out of him is what we need out of him to win games.”
“I told him in the hand shake line that he’s an incredible player,” Bennett said of Woleben. “And he’s young and he’s only going to get better. That kid plays like he’s in college in terms of his thought process and his mental game and that’s what makes him tough to play against.”
The zone defense continued to give Silver Creek fits in the fourth quarter as well, and an 18-4 run by Salamanca that stretched from 8:51 of the third and fourth frames, helped the Warriors tie the game 44-all with 3:52 remaining in regulation.
A big part of that stretch was the outside shooting of Joe Sherlock, who had a pair of 3-pointers to bring the Warriors to within five, 42-37 and four, 44-40, with 5:16 to go.
“Joe I thought was a different player in the first half and in the second half he stepped up and was the Joe that we know and love,” Bennett said of Sherlock, who finished with 16 points on the night. “That’s the way he plays every night. He’s got a great post game, but he can stretch it out outside, too, and that makes him tough to guard. He did a great job.”
A 3-pointer by Chris Williams with 3:22 left gave the Black Knights a 47-44 lead, but Sherlock connected on 3 of 4 free throws to tie the game with 1:32 on the clock, before a Bryant Jones layup with 1:10 left gave Silver Creek the lead back.
“Those are two seniors that, at this point, with all of our youth, those two guys are the only ones with any experience,” Genco said. “And for them to step up, I wasn’t surprised. But we need to finish.”
After a pair of free-throws by Jones — free throws that followed a 1 of 2 trip to the charity stripe by Hercules Rasha and a basket by Sherlock with 27.9 remaining — gave Silver Creek a 51-50 lead with :06.1 left in the game, it looked like the Black Knights might be able to finish this one out. But that’s when Collins stepped up and hit the shot his coach and teammates have been waiting all season long for him to make, sending the Warriors and their fans into a frenzy and the Black Knights’ faithful home heartbroken.
“That’s been how we’ve played all year,” Bennett said. “We’ve won three games in overtime, we’ve played single-digit games it seems like for the last month and a half and I tell our guys all the time, good teams find a way.”
“At this point, I told them that there is nothing I can say that’s going to take the sting away,” Genco said. “To lose like that — that’s two in a row like that — and we need to get back on track. We’re young, and I understand that, but they’ve grown a lot. But this is a six-game slide and they just need (a win). I really wanted it for them. They need a win, especially in our division, which is so tough.”
Collins finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and two assists while Sherlock added four rebounds to go with his 16 points.
For Silver Creek, which has now lost six straight, including five CCAA East 1 matchups, Woleben had 22 points, Williams finished with 12 points and Jones had nine.
“Against Allegany-Limestone we left some buckets on the board right at the end in a game we should have won and we lost by three,” Genco said. “(Friday) we all but had it put away and we have a mental breakdown. You call out the number you’re guarding and you don’t let them roll the ball in, you get back and guard your guy and we just had a mental mistake and we left a guy open and he made us pay for it with a deep three right at the buzzer.”
NOTES: Silver Creek took a 16-9 lead after the first quarter, getting 10 points from Woleben and four from Williams, then used a 13-4 run in the second quarter to build a 29-13 lead with 2:07 left before the break… The Black Knights are back in action on Monday night when they host Sherman at 7:30 in a non-league game… The Warriors are off until next Friday when they travel to take on the Falconer Golden Falcons. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.