Silverdale Baptist Academy baseball player Nathan Keylon isn’t ready to take batting practice in this type of weather.
Conditions are much nicer inside a basketball gym.
Keylon and his indoors teammates will have at least one more game this season. The Seahawks defeated host Sale Creek 55-51 on Tuesday on Dan Burton Court in the Region 3-A quarterfinals.
“I don’t know what I’d do if basketball ended,” Keylon joked. “Well, I’d be on the baseball field. But I don’t want basketball season to end.”
Silverdale senior Jordan Delashmitt led all players with 16 points, including three free throws in the final minute. Keylon and Michael Hawkins each scored 12 points.
“I was really nervous before the game,” Delashmitt said. “I knew we had to not turn it over and take the right shots.”
Preston Turner led the Panthers with 12 points and Dylan Johnson added 11 in their final game of the season.
“We didn’t execute well on offense and we didn’t shoot the ball real well,” Sale Creek coach David Helton said. “Maybe we’re not playing as well as we had been.
“We had to take a lot of outside shots against their zone (defense), and they didn’t go in.”
The Seahawks (17-14) are scheduled to face Arts & Sciences today at South Pittsburg in the semifinals.
“They are very athletic and can shoot and pound the ball inside,” said Silverdale coach Randy Evans, who played for Sale Creek and graduated from there in 1995. “We have to be patient.”
The Seahawks didn’t open the game with much patience Tuesday. They trailed for the entire first quarter and opened the second quarter with six turnovers and two more empty possessions, which increased their deficit to eight points.
But Silverdale rallied to within 24-22 at halftime.
“We started to handle their pressure and make smart decisions,” Evans said. “They cause teams to turn it over and make poor decisions.”
Silverdale took a 40-37 lead into the fourth quarter and built the advantage to nine points. A steal and a layup by Sale Creek’s Jesse Mobley pulled the Panthers to within two with 90 seconds remaining. He made another diving steal with the Panthers down by one but slid across the floor resulting in a traveling violation.
The Seahawks made enough free throws down the stretch to delay Keylon’s start to baseball practice.
“We persevered,” Evans said. “There were some times when we got lucky.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.