Indians shoot poorly in loss to Black Knights

After two overtime wins against Onondaga and Immaculate Heart, the West Canada Indians fell from their undefeated mark, stopping at 21 with a 54-45 loss to the Tully Black Knights in the Section III Class C Regional Finals.

West Canada (21-1) and Tully (21-1) both started cold from the field in the first quarter. After the first five minutes and 31 seconds both teams were deadlocked at three (3-3) after West Canada’s Alex Maxwell found teammate Matt Butler for a layup.

Not until the Indians’ Paul Atkinson hit a three-pointer, the first of the game, which gave his team a 6-5 lead, did any offense begin to exist.

The quarter ended with a steal by Tully’s Mike Boatwright and layup at the other end of the floor to give the Black Knights a three-point lead at the end of the quarter (9-6).

Building off of his steal at the end of the first quarter, Boatwright’s presence on the defensive end made most of the Indians’ guard uncomfortable when they came to his area.

Boatwright and the rest of the Black Knights were forgotten for a short amount of time in the second quarter when the Indians went on a 7-2 run, finished with another Atkinson three-pointer.
Tully eventually fought back to tie the game at 14 with 4:19 left in regulation.

Both teams traded baskets until the Black Knights put together a nice 7-1 run to end the first half. Leading Tully to their six-point lead (21-15) was Boatwright, Tyler Redington and Daniel Burt.

Both Boatwright and Burt hit shots in the paint and Redington made a three-pointer. Scoring the one point for West Canada was Jared Suderley, knocking down 1-of-2 foul shots.

Building on their late run in the second quarter, Tully opened up the second half with another 7-0 run. Boatwright began the quarter with a three-pointer and Connor Carroll hit a couple jumpers from the left corner after sitting most of the first half with two fouls.

Stopping the bleeding was another Suderley foul shot and Tyler Porter layup, bringing West Canada within 12 (30-18) with 3:37 left in the quarter.

Opening the wound back up was Tully’s Ben Hughes. Within one minute and 45 seconds Hughes scored more than half of his points in the game (10 points) with two three-point field goals. On Hughes second three-point attempt he was fouled, and hit the foul shot to give him seven of his ten points in under two minutes.

After Hughes two big shots, West Canada found themselves down by 16 (40-24) and ended the third quarter down by 15 (41-26) after a Alex Maxwell field goal.

Down, but not out, West Canada fought like they have all season, amassing a 12-6 run within the fourth quarters first three minutes. The run ended with a Xavier Maxwell deep three-pointer which brought the Indians within 10 points (46-36).
For the rest of this story check out the Herkimer Telegram.