Published: March 01, 2008 12:53 am      

CLASS 3A: Silver Creek tops Corydon to move into sectional final

RAMSEY — Silver Creek used a stingy defense and some clutch free throw shooting to knock off Corydon Central Friday night in the semifinals of the class 3A sectional at North Harrison, 54-43 .

“I thought our defense was very good tonight. It was a big key for us,” Dragons head coach John Bradley said of his team, who held Corydon to just 32 percent shooting. “We had some kids that didn’t do what they normally do but our defense really came to play.”

The Dragons will play Clark County rival Charlestown in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. final. Silver Creek is just one of three teams to defeat the Pirates this season.

“We had quite a battle with Charlestown in the second game of the year. We won that one in overtime and tomorrow night will be a good game,” Bradley said. “There are a lot of good matchups and whoever wins those matchups will win the game.”

Things started slowly for the Pirates who went nearly three minutes without a basket to open the game. Brandon Dunaway scored seven of Corydon’s eight first quarter points as the score was knotted 8-8 at the first stop.

“I thought (Chad) Koetter’s defense on Dunaway was solid,” Bradley noted. “Dunaway got his points tonight but Koetter was just all over him and I was pleased with that.”

Dunaway finished with a game-high 17.

The Dragons dominated the second period, hitting 6-of-9 field goals and outrebounding the Panthers 9-2. Despite the impressive second stanza numbers, Creek led by just six at intermission 22-16.

“At halftime we talked about how we wanted to spread the floor more to get some more post entries. I felt like we settled for the outside shot too much in the first half. We needed to get it inside more,” Bradley said.

The Dragons defense continued its strong showing as they held Corydon to 27 percent shooting in the third frame. Creek had its biggest lead of the game at 33-21 near the end of the third before a 65 foot heave from Dunaway swished through at the horn and the Panthers pulled within nine at 33-24.

“That three they hit at the end of the third quarter was big. Our kids were bowing our heads after that. I told them to look up at the scoreboard and keep their heads up,” Bradley said.

The Dragons saw their double-digit lead shrink to just three on two occasions midway through the fourth. However key free throw shooting and more dominating rebounding wore down Corydon as Creek held on and knocked off the Harrison County school for the second time in two weeks.

Creek hit 13-of-16 at the charity stripe in the final period, lead by Spencer Robinson’s 5-of-6 and Michael Bradley’s 4-of-4. The Dragons left the North Harrison backboards shiny clean, waxing the glass to a 38-21 supremacy.

“We wanted to make sure we rebounded well tonight. We felt like we really shortcutted ourselves by not rebounding well against Mitchell in our last game so rebounding it well tonight was a big priority of ours,” Bradley said.



CORYDON CENT. 8 8 8 19—43

SILVER CREEK 8 14 11 21—54

Corydon Central (8-15) — Nichols 2, Cal. Saulman 16, Dunaway 17, Harl 0, Ross 5, Smith 2, Brown 0, Ward 1.

Silver Creek (15-7) — Robinson 12, Clayton 2, Bradley 4, Kight 12, McCall 4, Koetter 6, Seaton 0, Townsend 10, Hamm 4.

Three-point field goals: Corydon Central 4 (Saulman 2, Dunaway 2); Silver Creek 1 (Robinson).

Rebounds: Corydon Central 21, Silver Creek 38.

Turnovers: Corydon Central 7, Silver Creek 11.