CLEMMONS
West Forsyth found the gear it needed in the second half and rode it to a 73-63 win over High Point Central in the second round of the 4-A West Sectional 2 playoffs last night.
Senior guard Crishawn Rhyne, who led the Titans with 16 points, said that the seniors rallied around each other at halftime and determined that their careers wouldn't end last night. And according to Rhyne, a "spirited" halftime chat by Coach Mike Pennington seemed to re-focus West on what it needed to do.
"I don't think I've ever seen him that way," Rhyne said. "That helped us get it back together. We didn't want things to end on a sour note, so we knew we had to come out and step it up in the second half."
West trailed 25-22 at halftime and fell further into a hole when leading scorer Allan Jones picked up his third foul 17 seconds in to the third quarter, fouling Kyle Currie of Central on a 3-point attempt.
Currie, who finished with 20 points for the Bison, made two of the three free throws to give Central its biggest lead of the night at 27-22.
As West started getting the tempo going in its favor with a stingy man-to-man defense, the offense followed suit.
Rhyne made a steal and a layup that knotted the score at 32, and then forced another turnover on the next possession and drove the length of the floor before making a driving layup and getting fouled.
Rhyne missed the free throw, but West took a 34-32 and never trailed the rest of the way.
The Titans closed the third quarter with a 44-40 lead, and Pennington said he thought the defensive intensity during the quarter was the key.
"We went zone early on so we could slow them down, because they might have been the most athletic, physical and scrappy team we have seen all year," Pennington said. "It took our guys way too long to figure out that we were going to have to out-scrap them. It wasn't going to be one of the pretty games where we could run all our pretty cuts on offense and score off screens. It was going to be a dogfight."
West scored the first four points of the fourth quarter the stretch the lead to eight points. Jones made a short jump shot and Phil Kostelic made two free throws for a 48-40 advantage.
Central never got closer than eight the rest of the way, even after Jones picked up his fourth foul with 5:57 left. Central went into scramble mode and applied full-court pressure, but Rhyne and Phil and Steve Kostelic were able to thread the defense and get into the open court, with the end result being easy transition baskets or someone ending up on the free-throw line.
"I really thought those three were huge," said Pennington, referring to the play of Rhyne and the Kostelic brothers. "Three seniors who figure out a way to win. They didn't hang their heads. It also helped us that the game got so fast and with them (Central) pressing, it allowed them to do their thing a little bit more. They love to get in there and mix it up.
"And even with Crishawn having a bruised thigh right now, he isn't able to find that fourth gear he normally has, but he figures out a way to get it done."
Free throws were a big part of the reason West pulled away in the fourth, making 16 of 18 in the quarter.
"We've been pretty successful with that all season," Pennington said. "It's something I give these kids a lot of credit for. We've been in so many close games this season, and with the experience we have with these guys being in those situations, it ends up paying off."
The Bison managed to make just 4 of 15 from the line.
Jones finished with 14 points, Phil Kostelic had 13, and Steve Kostelic added 10 for West, which will play unbeaten Huntersville Hopewell in the Sectional final on Friday night at West.
High Point Central finished its season 19-9.
High Point Central 14 11 15 23 -- 63
West Forsyth 12 10 22 29 -- 73
High Point Central: Currie 20, Derek Grant 14, Shaq Bethea 12, Lanaham 2, Ledbetter 1, Nieves 5, Kennedy 3, Lockhart 2, Lynch 2, Dowdy 2
West Forsyth: Rhyne 16, Jones 14, P. Kostelic 13, S. Kostelic 10, Brown 7, Alberts 7, Nader 6
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