Junior Zion Crowe scored a game-high 21 points and junior R.J. Griffin added 11 as the Braves advanced to face 10th-seeded Anna in a district semifinal game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Northmont.
“It’s survive and advance at this point,” said Braves coach Chris McGuire. “We turned the ball over way too much, missed a lot of layups. I don’t know what our missed layup count was, but it was high. The guys did a good job defensively and kept them away from the rim. … I’m proud of the guys for battling through some adversity and we’ll move on to the next one.”
The Braves led 24-7 at the half. The Tigers (2-18) cut the lead to seven points on a 3-pointer by senior Brendan Crump with less than three minutes remaining, but couldn’t get any closer. Crump scored a team-high 18 points for Stivers.
“We knew they were way better than their record showed,” McGuire said. “They had some guys who missed some games and they were finally at full strength.”
The Braves won their sixth straight game to improve to 15-7. They’re seeking their second straight trip to the district finals. They’ll face a tough Anna squad, which advanced to a D-III regional semifinal game last winter.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge,” McGuire said. “We told the boys we’ll have to play better than we have the last two games. When you start getting into this stretch in the third round, you’ve got to play some of your better games. If not, you’re going to get beat. I think these guys realize we’ll have to be sharper and execute a little bit better.”
Anna 45, Greenon 38: The seventh-seeded Knights took a 32-30 lead on a bucket by senior Jaden Journell with 6:30 remaining, but the 10th-seeded Rockets outscored Greenon 15-6 the rest of the way to advance to a D-III district semifinal game against Shawnee.
Journell scored a team-high 16 points for the Knights, which finished its season 15-8.
“We had decent looks I thought, they just didn’t fall our way tonight,” said Knights coach Greg Kimball.
The Knights jumped out to an early 12-5 lead, but the Rockets went on a 7-0 run to grab a 14-12 lead. The score was tied 20-20 at the half.
The Rockets took a 40-34 lead on a bucket by Drew Doseck with less than two minutes remaining. The Knights cut the lead to three points on a 3-pointer by Journell with 1:15 remaining, but the Rockets went 6-for-8 from the free throw line in the final minute to seal the victory.
“We’ve been talking about being consistent all year, trying to move with a purpose and keeping our spacing,” Kimball said. “We kind of have some lulls where if we’re not hitting shots, we’re forcing things and we got in one of those lulls again. We missed shots that we normally hit and it just wasn’t our night.”
Anna’s McKane Finkenbine scored a game-high 18 points, going 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. The Rockets are seeking their fourth straight district championship.
Greenon will graduate six seniors who played a key role in the program’s resurgence over the last four years. The Knights won 15 games this season, the program’s winningest season since the 2003 season.
“As much as it stings that we’re done, they’ve laid the foundation for what we’re trying to do here over the next few years,” Kimball said. “We’re grateful for all they did for the program over these last four years.”
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