Surry Central's Ethan Wilmoth, center, slices through West Stokes defenders Monday.
After Central led by as much as five in the fourth quarter, West’s Will Bennett hit a 3-pointer with 1:40 left to play to give the Wildcats their first lead since the start of the second half at 45-44.
Central couldn’t respond on its next possession, as West drew a charge and regained control with a minute remaining.
But on the next possession, the Golden Eagles got a big break when Tanner Hudson flew in front of a West Stokes pass to put the game back into his team’s control.
As Central began to set up a play to try and regain the lead, a pass in the backcourt bounced off the trailing referee’s chest and into a West Stokes players hands, forcing Central to foul and all but paving the way for the Wildcats wild comeback win.
While it was an important play, Central coach Ken Eiswald refused to point to his team’s misfortune in the one instance as the main cause for the loss.
Central was 5-of-19 from the free throw line for the game (1-of-6 in the second half), and had to play the majority of the final minutes minus offensive catalyst Ethan Wilmoth, who picked up his fourth foul with 3:45 left in the fourth.
“I don’t even want to mention that one because we had other plays and other opportunities,” Eiswald said. “I don’t want to look at what we had from the free throw line, but we had multiple opportunities down the stretch to make plays. We didn’t handle the late game situation well this time. In the past we’ve done a pretty good job down the stretch handling the pressure. Tonight, we just didn’t. They made key plays and made key shots. They were just relaxed. I don’t know how you tell yourself to relax. You’re just in that situation and have to say, ‘I’ve been here before and we’ve got to do this thing together and finish it off.’”
West’s Austin Fleming had nearly half of his team’s points with 22 for the game, which included 13 in the first half.
Dave Wilmoth led Surry Central with 14 points, followed by Austin McLamb with 10.
In the girl’s matchup, Surry Central picked up an important win for its state playoff hopes, as they topped West 47-36.
The Golden Eagles held the Wildcats to just 10 first half points and maintained a double-digit lead for the entire second half, even after allowing West to nearly double its point total in the fourth quarter.
Central coach Mandy Holt said the Eagles were focused on the matchup, as with the poor weather possibly altering the conference tournament, Monday’s win could be as good as a tournament win.
“Even before the game we were really motivated,” Holt said. “For us this was the game of the season. To win we probably get to go to the state playoffs, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the conference tournament play-in game with the weather, so this might end up being the play-in game. All this stuff was on the line tonight. I started three seniors and said, ‘Look, this is more than senior night, we’ll just say it’s senior night,’ because this is the biggest game they’ve played. It isn’t for the conference championship but for our program it’s really important.”
West Stokes 51, Surry Central 45
WS — 14 14 9 14 — 51
SC — 18 7 17 5 — 47
West Stokes — Austin Fleming 22, Brett Boles 10, Bennett 6, Nunn 6, Spainhour 5, Smith 2
Surry Central — Dave Wilmoth 14, Austin McLamb 10, Lewis 6, E. Wilmoth 6, Levesque 5, Dawson 4, Leftwich 2
Surry Central 47, West Stokes 36
WS — 4 6 6 20 — 36
SC — 12 10 9 14 — 47
West Stokes — T. Mitchell 9, Ca. Madigan 8, Niday 5, K. Mitchell 5, Ch. Madigan 3, Bottoms 3, Baughman 2
Surry Central — Emily Marshall 10, White 9, Tolbert 8, Coe 8, Hegler 4, Chavez 2, Joyner 2
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