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Silver Creek wins regular season finale, 57-52 over WNY Maritime

‘W’ on Senior Knight

OBSERVER Photo by Lisa Monacelli Silver Creek’s Brady Woleben (35) shoots during Tuesday’s non-league contest against WNY Maritime in Silver Creek. The Black Knights won the game, on Woleben’s Senior Night, 57-52.

SILVER CREEK — With Silver Creek’s CCAA Div. 2 East league schedule now complete, the boys basketball team felt their game with WNY Maritime on Tuesday would be a nice tune-up before the postseason gets underway.

If Tuesday’s game was any indication — they’re tuned-up nicely.

Silver Creek was fueled on their Senior Night by leading scorer Brady Woleben, who led the way with 23 points while pacing the Black Knights to their 13th win of the season, defeating the Commodores, 57-52.

“It was a big win for us,” said Silver Creek head coach Rob Genco. “We’re going to see a team like that in the playoffs. We really need that — to come out and compete after that loss to Allegany — we needed to grab some momentum heading into the playoffs.”

Even though this was a game that virtually had no implications on the playoffs or seeding, the Black Knights came out of the gates and won the hustle game. The Black Knights were taking charges, diving for loose balls and collecting offensive rebounds like it was a playoff game and that led to a successful first quarter.

“In the beginning of the game that’s what I told them we needed to do against teams like this,” said Genco about his team. “I tell them all the time, you don’t want to go to the ground with a grappler and you don’t want to box a boxer — we just needed to play our style.”

After falling behind 9-4, Silver Creek rattled off 10 straight points, capped by a Tucker Gates floater off the glass at the buzzer, giving his team the 14-9 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter featured a high-intensity, fast-paced style of play from both teams. With shots not falling very often, Dominic Jamison drilled a 3-pointer late in the quarter to help the Black Knights keep their lead at halftime, up 21-14.

“We needed to slow it back down on offense and still be fast but patient at the same time,” said Genco. “We responded. Super proud of Sammy Braidich and Jeremy Wilcox for what they did off the bench.”

Braidich and Wilcox were thrown into the first midway through the third quarter when Gates fouled out after running into a Commodore shooting a 3-point shot. Coach Genco challenged his young guys, and they stepped up in a big way.

“Every time Tucker (Gates) as fouled out of the game this season, we’ve lost,” said Genco. “It was huge to see guys like Sammy (Braidich) and Jeremy (Wilcox) step up for us.”

When the fourth quarter came around, WNY Maritime decided to press, but the Black Knights were able to keep their poise and break it all throughout the fourth quarter.

“Them starting to press us actually hurt them,” said Genco of the Commodore press in the fourth quarter. “Sammy was able to get the ball in the middle and attack for us.”

Another key to the fourth quarter was Silver Creek’s Dominic Jamison. Jamison scored seven of his 15 points in the quarter, while also tallying a number of assists to get his team some easy baskets in close.

“Dom (Jamison) came out and played well — he killed them,” said Genco of his junior guard. “He bothered their top scorer all night — he’s pesky.”

While the win is nice heading into the playoffs, it was also nice to send out the Silver Creek seniors with a win in their final regular season home game. Coach Genco sent out all five of his seniors including Woleben, Gates, Ammon Jones, Dylan Snow and Jack Brennan for the opening tip-off.

“I normally don’t do that,” said Genco about starting all five of his seniors. “These guys have worked so hard. I’m happy I was able to do that for them because stuff like that definitely warms your heart.”

Now, the Black Knights will turn their attention to the postseason after finishing the season 13-7. Silver Creek will be slotted in the No. 4 seed in the Class C1, and will most likely face Salamanca to open, but Buffalo Science also still has a chance to move up a seed before season’s end.

“We really needed that,” said Genco. “To come out and put together a complete performance is really going to give us momentum heading into next week.”

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