Silverdale Baptist Academy basketball coach Slater Belew witnessed one of the worst practices from his team Friday leading up to its first region game. Brannon Walls made that hard to believe.
Walls posted 29 points and carried the Seahawks to a 62-47 victory over Marion County in a Region 3-A quarterfinal Saturday night. The win advances SBA to a semifinal matchup with Van Buren County on Tuesday.
"I really did not want this to be my last game," Walls said. "Any postseason game you are going to play your hardest, but this was a special one because it was at home. I just had the mentality to leave it all out there on the court."
Walls started the show early and found the bottom of the net often in the first quarter, tallying 10 of the 12 first-quarter points for the Seahawks (15-10). Silverdale held a two-point advantage midway through the second before creating a cushion with a 12-3 run to close the half. Nineteen of its 28 first-half points belonged to Walls.
But the Warriors (8-14) were not leaving without a fight. They scored the first seven points of the second half to trim the lead back to two. Kane Hale scored seven in the quarter, and his layup with less than four minutes in the third cut the deficit to 31-28.
However, Walls resumed his monster night with back-to-back triples extending the lead to nine going into the final quarter. Marion County got within seven in the fourth, but Caylor Crockett's 3-pointer made it a 10-point game and ultimately closed out the Warriors' season.
"I am so proud of the way we executed out here," Belew said. "Marion County has a good, physical basketball team and I thought we hung in there. I could not think of a better way to start region play."
The Seahawks had four players score at least seven points. Cade Hannah was the team's second leading scorer with nine.
Hale scored 19 points to lead Marion County. Nicq Ivory added 10.
Belew is excited for the challenges ahead and looks to move forward following a rough end to the district tournament. Saturday was a good indication that his team has done that.
"The most important thing to take away from tonight's game is some confidence, really," Belew said. "We are looking forward to Tuesday because we have some unfinished business in region just because of the way we finished district, so hopefully that confidence carries over into the next game."
Contact Anthony Sigismond at sports@timesfreepress.com.