Silver Creek upends Barker in Class C1 semifinals

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Barker’s Bryce Moeller puts up a shot against Silver Creek’s Bill Brooks (32) during the Raiders Class C1 semifinal loss to the Knights this evening at Jamestown Community College.

Plagued by a rash of first half turnovers and unable to get untracked offensively, top seeded Barker was upended by No. 4 Silver Creek 62-48 this evening in the Section VI Class C1 semifinals at Jamestown Community College.

Defensively, the Raiders had no answer for 6-7 Silver Creek center Bill Brooks who poured in 21 points from close range.

“We allowed him to disrupt us,” said Barker Coach Dave Carson of Brooks who scored 13 in the first half to help spark the Knights out to a 27-19 advantage which they never relinquished.

“We just could never get into a flow at either end of the court,” added Carson.

The Knights also got scoring from outside as Andrew John netted 13, Tevon Thompson 9 and Brennan White 8.

Mitch Luckman shared game high honors for Barker with 21 as Jacob Haight added 13, Bryce Moeller and Tristan Payne 6 and Hayden Gooding 2.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Jacob Haight tries to put up a shot for Barker over Silver Creek defenders Bill Brooks (32) and Andrew John (1).

Sparked by back-to-back layups by Brooks and a three off a turnover by White, Silver Creek jumped out to an 11-3 lead at the outset.

However, Payne came off the bench and hit two quick threes to provide the spark rallying Barker back into a 11-11 tie at the end of the first period despite committing six turnovers in the early going.

“I thought when Tristan came in and gave us a spark we would get going but we couldn’t carry that over into the second quarter,” Carson said.

Barker did grab a narrow two point advantage three times early in the second quarter at 13-11 after a slam dunk by Moeller, at 15-13 after a layup by Luckman and finally at 17-16 after a jumper by Luckman.

That proved to be the Raiders last lead though as Silver Creek answered with an 11-2 run to close the period and regain the lead for good at 27-19 at the half as six more turnovers in the quarter stalled the Raiders offense.

Brooks spearheaded that Knights uprising with two short jumpers and a three-point play off a layup.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Barker’s Mitch Luckman drives against Sherman Williams of Silver Creek.

Keeping the momentum, Silver Creek opened the third quarter with a 9-2 run, including back-to-back rebound buckets by Brooks and a three by White, to open up a 15 point, 36-21 advantage midway through the period.

A six point run by Haight on two free throws, a layup and a rebound bucket did pull Barker back to within 10, 42-32, but again Silver creek answered right back to move back out to a 45-32 advantage at the three-quarter mark.
Barker did come battling back to within six at 49-43 with 3:30 remaining in the final quarter after putting together an 11-4 run including five free throws by Luckman, a layup and two free throws by Haight and two free throws by Moeller.

However, the Raiders could get no closer as Silver Creek countered with a three by Kaine Kettle and a fast break layup by John to quickly move back out to a 54-43 advantage with just 2:45 remaining to put a lock on the win.

“The turnovers hurt and some of that came from us trying to make that extra pass,” said Carson. “We were just a bit too unselfish tonight and we just couldn’t get into a flow either offensively or defensively.”

Niagara-Orleans League champion Barker finishes the season with a 19-1 record.
“This is such a great group of kids. I’m just very proud of them,” Carson said. “They had a great season.”

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Barker’s Christopher Sweeney tries to score against Silver Creek’s Kaine Kettle.