Overwhelming joy struck for Silverdale Baptist Academy's girls and Boyd Buchanan's boys Friday night on Notre Dame High School's basketball court.
The Lady Seahawks' Marlee Montgomery and the Buccaneers' Eli Evans will not soon forget the thrill of victory they experienced there, with both seniors pivotal in leading their teams to Division II-A East District 2 tournament titles.
Montgomery scored a game-high 21 points as Silverdale beat the host Lady Fighting Irish 58-42 to improve to 21-6 this season.
"We were pretty nervous coming into the championship game because Notre Dame is such a good team and took us to overtime earlier this season," Montgomery said. "We had to relax, have fun and remember why we started playing and loving this game. Once we did that, everything else took the back seat."
A key player for the Bucs' dominant defense, Evans showed his offensive skills by making five 3-pointers in the second half, and he stole a pass at midcourt to put a stamp on a 51-29 win over Notre Dame.
The Buccaneers, ranked fourth in the state in Division II-A, trailed 18-6 early.
"To win this championship is so surreal," said Evans, who finished with a game-high 22 points and six 3-pointers. "We were not any good our first two years, but our new coaches came in here and helped us turn it all around. They brought this whole new warrior culture in here. To accomplish what we have worked so hard for, I can't express how excited our team is about this."
Preston Edmondson came off the bench and provided an enormous spark for the Bucs (23-4), especially during a third quarter in which he scored eight points and played ferocious man-to-man defense against the Irish (17-12).
Will Emery blocked shots, Caden Johnson made key steals and Ian Johnson made crucial 3s and assists to help spark a 33-3 run for Boyd Buchanan that put it up 39-21 after Evans' trey from the left corner with 6:10 left to play.
"We are hard to score on," Bucs coach Josh Templeton said. "I am so happy for them. We love the battle and really wanted to play Notre Dame because they are such a great championship opponent. They punched us in the mouth early, but our team has been resilient and they will always keep coming back. Their hard work is paying off."
Ian Johnson finished with 18 points and added eight assists in the victory.
Silverdale junior Laney Bone, announced this week as a TSSAA Miss Basketball candidate, finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds despite starting off slow while facing double teams.
Defense was a plus for Lady Seahawks, who have won 22 straight games against district opponents. Becca Lamb's steal and pass to Tessa Gibson streaking up court set up the basket that started a fourth quarter in which Silverdale outscored its hosts 20-7.
Junior Ryleigh Hoover hit a trio of second half 3s, includin back-to-back shots, to build a double-digit lead for Silverdale in the fourth.
"All of our girls wrote joy on their wrists tonight and the coaches did too," Lady Seahawks coach Victor Underwood said. "During the game when adversity came, I kept looking to my wrist, reminding our girls about it. They truly had fun tonight and stepped up."
Notre Dame dropped to 18-9.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.