Green Dragons score nine points in first half
Mar. 6—LEWISBURG — There was a stretch Friday night when Athens' youth and nerves started to show against Lewisburg in the quarterfinals of the District 4 Class 4A tournament.
The Wildcats held an early four-point lead, but their offense went stagnant.
"We are a young team. Sometimes we are inconsistent offensively," Athens coach Jim Lister said. "One thing we've done pretty well is play defense."
So while Athens was plagued by turnovers in the second quarter, its defense never let the ice-cold Green Dragons get on track. A late second-quarter run sparked the Wildcats to a 55-41 victory over Lewisburg.
"We're young, long and athletic. That benefits us on the defensive end," Lister said. "When we're active with our hands, and we're aggressive, we play good defense. We've done that all year.
"I'm just disappointed in our offense. I really think we should have scored 75 or 80 points in this game."
Athens (14-9) advances to play top-seeded Danville (14-1) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. Lewisburg wraps its season at 10-9.
"This season has been hard on the players and the coaches, but I'm very upset to see it come to an end," Lewisburg coach Matt Salsman said. "I was hoping tonight could be a bright spot, and we could start building something (in the postseason).
"You can't score nine points (in a half) and expect to win a basketball game."
That's exactly what happened to the Green Dragons, who played without top scorer Jacob Hernandez. Hernandez was ineligible for the playoffs due to his transfer from Shikellamy.
Lewisburg managed just two field goals in the first 12:08 of the game, but its defense forced 16 first-half turnovers. Miraculously when Dante Sims knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:52 left in the first half, the Green Dragons were within five at 14-9, and seemed to be back into the game.
"We aren't exceptionally talented in the open floor, and when we weren't able to get anything going in the halfcourt, we were kind of really hamstrung offensively," Salsman said.
The Wildcats were the first to get on track offensively, scoring the final seven points of the first half to open up a 21-9 lead at the half.
Lewisburg finally got going offensively in the third quarter. Forrest Zelechoski scored nine of his team-high 11 in the third quarter. Kadyn Magyar's 3-pointer with 3:20 left in the third quarter had Lewisburg back to within 26-19.
"We do fight. We have kids that fight. (Assistant) coach (Justin) Keiser touched on it in (the locker room). We have a lot of fight in games, but we don't always fight hard in practice," Salsman said. "So we don't simulate some of this intensity in practice. We don't have high-intensity practices; it takes a while to adjust to the intensity of the game. It feels foreign to us.
"And we need to feel that game kind of pressure is normal, just another day for us."
That's when coach Lister's son — Mason — picked up the scoring slack for the Wildcats. He knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers, and scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the second half.
Lewisburg got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Zelechoski was the lone Green Dragons' player in double figures, but Cam Michaels chipped in nine points, and Magyar finished with eight points.
In addition to Lister, Troy Pritchard had 10 points, and Nalen Carling scored nine points for Athens.
DISTRICT 4 CLASS 4A
QUARTERFINAL
ATHENS 55, LEWISBURG 41
Athens (14-9) 55
Tucker Brown 2 2-3 6; Mason Lister 6 3-4 18; JJ Babcock 2 2-4 6; Nalen Carling 4 0-0 9; Troy Pritchard 4 2-7 10; Chris Mitchell 1 1-2 3; James Benninger-Jones 1 0-0 3. Totals 20 10-20 55.
3-point goals: Lister 3, Carling, Benninger-Jones.
Did not score: John Smith.
Lewisburg (10-9) 41
Dante Sims 2 1-6 6; Joey Martin 2 2-4 7; Cam Michaels 4 0-2 9; Forrest Zelechoski 3 4-4 11; Kaydn Magyar 1 5-7 8. Totals 12 12-23 41.
3-point goals: Sims, Martin, Michaels, Zelechoski, Magyar.
Did not score: Kaden Wuerdeman, Kashaun Atkins, Henry Harrison, Devon Budden.
Score by quarters
Athens'9'12'13'21 — 55
Lewisburg'5'4'18'14 — 41
