PORTVILLE — The narrative regarding the Silver Creek Black Knights’ season so far has been while the team has fared well against non-league competition, it has struggled in the more meaningful league games, without a league win coming into Friday’s contest at perennial powerhouse Portville.

In the final second of Friday’s game, that narrative was laid to rest.

Silver Creek’s Kiera Brennan grabbed an offensive rebound in the final moments and sunk the game-winning putback layup to lift the Black Knights past the Portville Panthers, 47-46, in a CCAA Division 1 East girls basketball game at Portville High School. It was the first win at Portville in eight years under the direction of Silver Creek head coach Tammy Rice.

“Portville has a winning tradition. The hard thing on our end is tying to fight through the mentality of going up against a program like that,” said Tammy Rice. “I’m extremely proud of my girls. To come back and win like that in the final seconds, so many people did something right to make that happen.”

Playing without star senior Karly Welty, Portville (10-4, 4-2) jumped ahead to a double-digit lead early on. Silver Creek (9-6, 1-5) trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, but it all started to change late in the second quarter. After a couple of key shots, Silver Creek’s Abby Rice hit a 3-pointer with just two seconds remaining in the period to send Silver Creek into the locker room at the break down just five points.

“After that, mentally, we went into the locker room on a high,” said Tammy Rice. “Instead of feeling discouraged, the girls were excited to come back out.”

Silver Creek cut the Portville lead down to one point, 46-45, with 20 seconds left in the game. Then, after choosing to lay off the inbounder, Jade Bouvier and Jaylah Cossin trapped the ball-handler and forced a steal to give the Black Knights the chance to win the game on the final possession. Abby Rice took a 3-point attempt in the final seconds, but after the shot missed, Brennan was there for the offensive rebound and put the ball through the hoop to capture the thrilling, potentially season-altering victory.

The game-winning shot gave Brennan 13 points, along with five rebounds. After 11 of her 12 points came in the first half of the team’s last game, a 61-15 win over JFK on Tuesday, Brennan made her mark most at the end of Friday’s contest.

“Tonight marks the second game in a row I wish we could have back,” said Portville coach Inga Welty on Friday. “… Hopefully, we will learn from our mistakes and do better the next time we are in a close game.”

Abby Rice finished with a team-high 22 points, along with seven assists and five rebounds. Bouvier added six points and four rebounds, while Chloe Barrett had six rebounds.

“Abby Rice had a solid all-around game for the Lady Knights,” said coach Inga Welty. “Sometimes our help defense was so worried about Abby scoring that my girls lost track on the backside and she did a good job of finding the open teammate.”

Mallory Welty had 23 points and 10 rebounds for Portville in the loss, while Shayla Wilhelm had 8 points and 11 rebounds of her own.

Silver Creek hopes to carry the momentum of Friday’s win into Tuesday’s league contest against Falconer at Silver Creek High School.

“The girls are excited. They’re ready for the next one,” said Tammy Rice.