The Golden Falcons defeated the Black Knights 54-39 in their home opener at Silver Creek High School.

“Max stands out in a league of his own,” Falconer head coach Cordell O’Brien said. “Max is very mature for his age. He is able to get his teammates involved and do all the little things that are tough to coach. He’s just got that ‘it factor’.”

Parmentier tallied 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in Friday’s contest, at times carrying his team almost single-handedly. But as Silver Creek (1-2) put up a fight entering the intermission, Falconer (3-3) needed someone else to step up to help Parmentier, who had 12 consecutive points for the Golden Falcons in a 20-point first half.

That help came from D’Mitri Carlson in the second half. Despite being held scoreless in the first quarter and only managing 3 points in the first half, Carlson came alive in the second half with 15 of his 18 points on the night.

Silver Creek’s Frankie Laspesa fights for a loose ball during the second half of Friday’s game against Falconer at Silver Creek High School. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen

“Carlson is a scrappy guy. He’s a good overall player,” Silver Creek head coach Nate Shuart said. “That’s a guy that you have to play against for 32 minutes. … We didn’t do a good job for 32 minutes against Carlson, and obviously, Max (Parmentier) is one of the best players we’ll play all year. … He has a very smooth game. Good touch, can get to his spots — he’s a great player. It’s hard to slow down a guy like that.”

First, it was Parmentier, as both teams struggled early on. The game was scoreless for the first three minutes, then after 10 points were split evenly over the next three-minute stretch, both teams went scoreless again for the final two minutes of the opening period.

The score was 5-5 after the first quarter, and both teams traded buckets early in the second quarter for a 9-9 score a few minutes in. From there, Falconer figured things out. The Golden Falcons went on an 11-0 run to pull ahead 20-9 with a minute left in the first half.

Silver Creek answered with six points in the final minute to pull to within five, capped by Greyson White hitting a shot at the buzzer through contact. He missed the free throw as the only player on the court while both teams went into the locker room to regroup.

“Hats off to their team, their coaching staff. They did a great job,” O’Brien said of Silver Creek’s defense on Friday. “Their man-to-man defense was really aggressive. They were getting a lot of steals, causing some steals early in the game. It put us in a tough spot where we had to really reflect in the mirror and make some adjustments.”

After the Black Knights pulled to within four points early in the second half, Falconer scored seven straight points to equal its largest lead of the contest to that point, 27-16. Carlson’s first 3-pointer of the contest got the run started.

“Our M.O. all year has been to get the ball inside, then we can work on getting some outside shots when we get some open looks,” said O’Brien.

Silver Creek pulled to within seven points again, but Parmentier put his foot down with seven points during a 9-0 run over three-plus minutes to extend Falconer’s lead to 36-20. From that point on, the Golden Falcons led by double digits the remainder of the contest.

“In the second half, we came out flat,” Shuart said. “The effort was there … we’ve just got to finish.”

After Falconer started the fourth quarter with six straight points, Silver Creek had a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Alan Hoelzle got a steal and went up for a shot in the paint looking to extend the run, but Parmentier met him at the apex of his jump and blocked the shot. The Golden Falcons were in full control the rest of the way.

“Historically, this is a tough place to play. Our kids showed a lot of resilience. They overcame a lot of adversity tonight. I was super proud of their attitudes and effort tonight,” said O’Brien.

Parmentier and Carlson combined for 40 of the 54 points for the Golden Falcons. Together, they totaled one point more than the Black Knights as a team.

Silver Creek was led by Taydence Stevens with 11 points, while Alan Hoelzle had 8 points, five rebounds, and five blocks. Greyson White and Gavin Delong both had 6 points on the night, while Jay Buffalo-Cortes had 5 points and Andrew Arnold had a 3-pointer in the opening period.

Up next, Falconer plays at Southwestern on Thursday in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 league play. Silver Creek plays at Springville-Griffith on Tuesday in nonleague action.

“Playing stiff competition, we’ve got to be consistent. We’ve got to play a full 32 minutes, and we’ve got to do the things outside of the game to get prepared for the moment,” Shuart said.

FALCONER (54)

Delaney 0 0 0, Carlson 7 2 18, Bianco 2 1 5, MaxParmentier 10 0 22, MarParmentier 1 0 2, Washington 2 0 4, Beckman 0 1 1, Nutt 1 0 2. Totals 23 4 54.

SILVER CREEK (39)

Hoelzle 3 1 8, Arnold 1 0 3, Seneca 0 0 0, Laspesa 0 0 0, DeLong 2 2 6, Carver 0 0 0, Buffalo-Cortes 2 0 5, White 2 2 6, Stevens 3 2 11, Pagan 0 0 0, Buffalo 0 0 0. Totals 13 7 39.

3-point goals–Carlson 2, MaxParmentier 2, Hoelzle, Arnold, Buffalo-Cortes, Stevens.

Falconer 5 15 21 13 — 54

Silver Creek 5 10 13 11 — 39