A strong second half propelled the Centertown Warriors into the championship game Thursday night, with a 40-32 victory over their county rivals the Eastside Bulldogs at Warren County High School in the 7-8 grade basketball tournament.
Down by 3 points after the first half, the dynamic duo of Centertown’s Wyatt and Westen Wilson found a couple of new gears for their offense as Wyatt Wilson scored 17 points and Westen 8 second-half points to secure a win for the Warriors, overcoming the team’s early deficit.
All told, Centertown outscored Eastside, 29-18, in the final two quarters.
“With one of our starters out due to injury, we had to change our game plan a little this week,” said Centertown coach Caleb Shehane. “We had a tough time getting into sync the first half but the team came out the second half and played well. Credit to Eastside players and coaches for coming out and playing a tough game. It was a good win for the team.”
Missing on the team’s roster was Warrior T.J. Howard.
Both teams fared similarly from the charity stripe as Centertown went 7-of-13 for 54 percent and Eastside 5-of-9 for 56 percent. Bulldog Cruz Reyes hit a perfect 5-of-5 for 100 percent from the foul line to boost Eastside’s percentage.
Coming as no surprise, having done so all season, the Wilson brothers led the offense for Centertown with Wyatt hitting for 23 points, a game high, and Westen totaled 13 points. Rounding out the offense for the Warriors was Dominique Hodges who hit for 4 points.
Reyes added 10 more points to his foul-line total, scoring 15 points in the game. Charlie Moore scored 9 points and Dylan Partain and Alex Jones both scored 3 points toward the final tally and Caden Beaty scored 2 points.
The win propelled Centertown into the championship game with the Morrison Eagles on Saturday night. Results were not available at press time.
Eastside will take on Dibrell to determine third place.