SLC VARSITY BOYS BASKETBALL PLAYOFF WIN-54-51-BRUSHTON

St. Lawrence Central overcame Brushton-Moira and defending champion Madrid-Waddington turned back Norwood-Norfolk in the semifinals of the Section 10 Class C boys basketball playoffs Thursday night. SLC 54, BMC 51: At Brasher Falls, the Larries (12-9) showed patience and perseverance in avenging an opening round loss to the Panthers as the high seed in last year’s sectional tournament. “We had a game plan for the second half and I didn’t want us to have to show it until we came back out after halftime. We started to get behind in the second quarter and the kids wanted to go with what we had planned but I told them there was still plenty of time and we could wait,” said coach Joey Reome as the Larries started to reverse a 32-23 halftime deficit by outscoring the Panthers 13-9 in the third then finished their comeback with a decisive 18-10 run.

“Our plan all along was to sit back in our halfcourt defense for the first half then ramp things up with fullcourt pressure for the second. We turned up the heat on them, got some turnovers and that helped us get things going on offense,” Reome added. “The loss to (BMC) last year ripped our hearts out so we definitely got a little pay back tonight.”

The teams traded leads and baskets through the first quarter with the Panthers (13-7) working their way to an 18-16 lead. A layup basket by Ethan LaRock tied the game 23-23 midway through the second quarter but that would be the final points of the half for the Larries and BMC would reel off nine straight points to take a 32-23 lead into halftime.

“I thought they played a real good first half,” noted Reome. “They had six three-pointers they were able to execute on offense. We were trailing but I thought we were playing well so there was no reason to go into freak-out mode as long as we could keep it under a 10-point deficit.”

Steven Horner struck for eight of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter and grabbed nine rebounds to anchor the winning effort. Cash Feeley worked the paint for eight points and 15 boards while doling out four assists. Caeden Taylor chipped in seven points, including the basket that tied the game at 49-49 with 28 seconds left and three steals. Ethan LaRock and Ansen Weegar added six points each with Weegar going 4-4 from the foul line in the fourth quarter while Grant Taylor rounded out the SLC scoring with two.