After a back and forth battle for almost the full 32 minutes, it came down to a three-pointer from the right wing by St. Elmo-Brownstown senior Jarrett Pasley with 2.3 seconds to go as the Eagles beat the South Central Cougars 53-50 in consolation semifinal action at the National Trail Conference Tournament on Friday night. The deep ball would come into play heavily in the first quarter for both teams as South Central would hit four 3-pointers, with three from Ethan Watwood, and SEB would hit three 3-pointers, two from Pasley as the Cougars would edge out to a 15-14 lead at the end of the first. SEB would continue to really on their perimeter game in the second, with another three 3-pointers, two from Caleb Campbell and another from Adam Atwood, while holding South Central to nine points with five of those from Watwood, to take a 27-24 halftime lead. South Central would retake the lead after halftime as Aidan Dodson would get going to the tune of 13 points in the quarter after hitting for just eight in the first half, and the Cougars would outscore SEB 18-11 to pull ahead 42-38 heading into the fourth quarter. SEB would chip away at the small Cougar lead in the fourth as the Eagles would hit on buckets by Wyatt Stine and Atwood to cut the Cougar lead to 46-44. South Central’s Dodson would answer with a fadeaway jumper to make it 48-44 with just over three minutes to play. After back-to-back turnovers by the Eagles and Cougars, SEB’s Campbell would drain a three-pointer from near the top of the key to cut the Cougar lead down to one, 48-47 before Seth Bergmann would answer for South Central as he would drive the left baseline and finish to get the South Central lead back up to three points at 50-47 with just over two minutes left to play. With the Eagles getting the ball back, Campbell would use a shot fake to lose his defender and in almost the same spot he hit his previous three-pointer, would drain another for SEB to tie the game up at 50-50 with 1:35 remaining in the game. Each team would miss on their next possessions and after a timeout, SEB would attempt to run some time off and hold for one shot. Another timeout would be called with 11.7 seconds to go. Coming out of that timeout, Atwood would find Pasley on the right wing as he would hit the three with 2.3 seconds left to push SEB ahead 53-50 with the clock stopping at 1.2 seconds when a timeout would be called by South Central. The Cougars would come back out and get set on the floor before SEB would then call a timeout. South Central would get the ball in to Dodson, but his long three-point attempt from the half court area would fall short as St. Elmo-Brownstown would pull out the 53-50 win over South Central. SEB now advances to the Consolation Championship game at 1:00pm on Saturday to face Windsor/Stew-Stras while South Central will drop into the 7th Place game where they will face Neoga at 11:30am on Saturday.
SEB Scoring:
Caleb Campbell – 18 points (Six 3-pointers)
Jarrett Pasley – 13 points
Adam Atwood – 9 points
Cade Schaub – 8 points
Wyatt Stine – 5 points
South Central Scoring:
Aidan Dodson – 25 points
Ethan Watwood – 16 points (Four 3-pointers)
Brody Markley – 4 points
Anthony Buonaura – 3 points
Seth Bergmann – 2 points
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