Westfield’s Carson Swanson eyes the floor ahead of Panama’s Gabe Roth during Friday’s Section VI Class D quarterfinal playoff game in Panama. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen

PANAMA — To be the champ, you have to beat the champ, and Panama played like a real championship contender on Friday night.

The Panthers avenged a loss at Westfield earlier this season with a dominant performance to eliminate the defending champion Wolverines 63-38 in a Section VI Class D boys basketball quarterfinal playoff game on Friday night at Panama High School.

“We got blown out at their place. This is really nice to come home and get one for the fans,” said Panama guard Bryce Hinsdale.

Panama (14-6, 4-seed Class D) began Friday’s game with a 7-0 run over the first two minutes. The advantage later increased to 13-1 with 3:32 left in the first quarter.

“It was like a heavyweight fight. We threw a haymaker,” said Panama head coach Ed Nelson.

Westfield (14-8, 5-seed Class D) responded with a pair of 3-pointers from Section VI’s leading scorer, Carson Swanson, to cut the deficit in half.

“We knew they were going to come back with some momentum,” Nelson said. “(We had to) just keep playing. … With a good player like Carson (Swanson), they are never out of it.”

The 13-7 Panama advantage held for the rest of the quarter. Panama had its lead cut to 19-14 with 5:44 left in the first half, but an 8-0 run, including 3-pointers from Hinsdale and Tate Catanese, extended the lead right back to double digits at 27-14.

“We knew we had to play four quarters with this team because Carson Swanson is an unbelievable player,” said Hinsdale.

Westfield got a pair of buckets toward the end of the first half to cut Panama’s lead back to single digits at the intermission. But just 17 seconds into the second half, Alex Barmore hit a 3-pointer to extend the Panama lead back to 12 points. The Panthers led by double digits for the rest of the contest.

“They got shots from a lot of guys all around the court,” said Westfield head coach Nolan Swanson. “They played well. They made a bunch of jumpers and they rebounded. We couldn’t even get the ball. This was a rough one.”

The last time the two teams met, Westfield had a resounding difference on the scoreboard at halftime, and led in three of the four quarters in a 62-40 win at Westfield Academy on Jan. 20. The script was flipped entirely on Friday. Panama outscored Westfield by eight points in each of the two quarters in the second half, and had a scoring advantage in every quarter.

“The way it ended at Westfield last time, their bigs ate us up. We made an effort to make sure that wasn’t going to happen again,” said Nelson.

Panama dominated the boards on Friday, especially on the offensive glass. Possession after possession resulted in second-chance opportunities that the Panthers eventually cashed in. The Panthers tallied 17 offensive rebounds on Friday to go with 29 defensive rebounds.

“These kids from Panama, they put together a really good ballgame with good players. I have a feeling they are going to be a real problem for a couple years,” Nolan Swanson said.

Westfield’s Carson Swanson led the all scorers with 22 points – 11 in each half. As spectacular of a season as he had, 22 points is actually well below an average scoring night for the sophomore sensation, who averaged 28 points per game this year coming into Friday’s contest.

Carter Russo was the only other player for the Wolverines to score more than four points in or to make a 3-pointer. Russo finished with 7 points. The remaining Wolverines accounted for nine total points.

“We just didn’t have anybody really making a shot. Maybe we were a little tight,” said Nolan Swanson. “We just couldn’t buy a basket from another guy for a while.”

The Panthers, however, had four players contribute in major ways offensively. Hinsdale and Barmore each had 16 points, while Tate Catanese had 14 points and Gabe Roth had 12 points. Jordan Mescall added 5 points in the first quarter for Panama.

“We had four guys in double figures tonight. Sometimes, throughout the year, we’ve had a little bit of trouble scoring the basketball. We talk about those guys being 1/5 of a scoring machine,” said Nelson. “I thought Tate Catanese stepped up. … We had a lot of people step up tonight. I’m happy to see it.”

Barmore also had 20 rebounds, including 10 offensive. Catanese added 12 rebounds, while Hinsdale had nine rebounds and six assists.

The two teams split the first two meetings of the regulars season, with each home team coming away with the win. On Friday, the Panthers’ victory made the home team in the series 3-for-3.

“We would’ve preferred this game over at our place. We let a few games go in the regular season that cost us the home court. You’ve got to value every game and we let three of them go,” said Nolan Swanson.

Nelson was proud to get the win at home for Panama’s lone senior, Gabe Roth.

“Gabe Roth has been around a lot of basketball here. He’s been here since he was in eighth grade. He’s been on top of the mountain, on a team with Cam Barmore when we were No. 1 in the state. He’s also been on a team where it was hard to get a win during the season,” said Nelson. “I couldn’t be happier for a kid like Gabe Roth to come out and get a win in his last one on this court.”

After defeating the defending champions in the playoffs, Nelson said, “One of the things we ended practice with (Thursday) was ‘Why not us? Not a lot of people were talking about us. We had some really good basketball games this year, we had some games we could’ve played better, but why not us?”

Panama now moves on to face Sherman on Monday night at Jamestown Community College in the Section VI, Class D semifinals.

“It’s unbelievable. We wanted this last year, but we unfortunately fell short. To get it this year, it’s really a nice feeling,” Hinsdale said.

WESTFIELD (38)

Strang 2 0 4, Russo 3 0 7, Tuah 0 1 1, Swanson 8 3 22, Vacanti 1 0 2, Fuller 1 0 2. Totals 15 4 38.

PANAMA (63)

Roth 3 5 12, Hinsdale 6 3 16, Catanese 4 5 14, Mescall 1 2 5, Barmore 7 0 16. Totals 21 15 63.

3-point goals–Russo, Swanson 3, Roth, Hinsdale, Catanese, Mescall, Barmore 2.

Westfield 7 11 9 11 — 38

Panama 13 14 17 19 — 63