The title game against Chautauqua Lake was a 64-49 score in favor of the Wolverines.

Westfield (4-0) started with the game’s first five points. Then, after Chautauqua Lake (1-2) had a 3-pointer by Luke Waters, Westfield scored the next eight points for a 13-3 lead with 2:05 remaining in the first quarter. A 3-pointer by Westfield’s Darien Swanson capped off the first quarter with an advantage of 18-8 in favor of the hosts.

“Westfield shot the ball very well in the first half,” Chautauqua Lake coach Alex Reyda said. “Hats off to them. That’s a very good team.”

The Wolverines scored the first six points of the second quarter for a 24-8 lead. Westfield’s Ryan Jafarjian drilled a 3-pointer with 3:43 left in the first half for a 32-12 lead to prompt a Chautauqua Lake timeout. Then, Westfield scored 10 of the next 13 points after the timeout.

Members of the Westfield Winter Classic All-Tournament Team, from left, are: Westfield’s Mike Johnson, Westfield’s Dylan Scriven, Sherman’s John Swabik, Chautauqua Lake’s Luke Waters and Tournament MVP Nate Culbreth of Westfield. Silver Creek’s Dominic Jamison, not pictured, also made the All-Tournament Team. Photo by Braden Carmen

“I knew if we shot the ball well, we’d be very hard to beat. I think that happened for about six quarters (in this tournament),” Westfield coach Bob North said. “We made shots both nights, which gave us a nice lead. … But we held them to 19 first-half points. Our defense was very good again.”

Chautauqua Lake’s Michael Anderson hit a buzzer-beater to end the first half, just as he did in Friday’s first half against Sherman. However, while Friday’s shot resulted in a team-wide celebration and shouted words in the direction of Sherman, Saturday’s buzzer-beater didn’t even result in a reaction from the Thunderbirds, down 42-19 at the break.

“At halftime, I said this was a test of character,” Reyda said. “I said ‘You can go out there and be down by 40 at the end of this, or you can challenge them. That’s all we could hope for being in that sort of a hole at that point.”

Chautauqua Lake played Westfield much tighter in the third quarter, as the Wolverines only outscored the Thunderbirds 12-10 in the period. Westfield only had four points over the first 3:30 of the second half. Westfield pulled much of its starting five to start the fourth quarter, but the Thunderbirds went on a 15-0 run to cut the Wolverines’ advantage to only 10 points, which prompted North to call a timeout and re-enter four of his five starters.

“That 15-0 (run) was against most of my subs with four of their five starters on the floor,” North said. “My starters told me to put them back in and we got the lead back in a hurry. We made sure everyone knew who the better team was.”

Silver Creek’s Dominic Jamison, left, is defended by Sherman’s Bryce Fisher, right, as the Wildcats’ John Swabik (2) looks on during Saturday’s Westfield Winter Classic consolation game in Westfield. Photo by Braden Carmen

Westfield responded with 10 of the next 12 points, starting with a Mike Johnson 3-pointer, to end the run. Chautauqua Lake scored the final three points to leave the final deficit at 15.

“When we make shots, that makes the game easy — and it’s coming from all over,” North said. “It’s not just one kid. You better find just about anyone I’ve got on the floor to defend us if we’re shooting the ball that well.”

Johnson finished with a game-high 20 points, along with four rebounds. Andrew Baribeau was dominant on the defensive end with 15 rebounds and five blocked shots, to go with 11 points on the night. Dylan Scriven had 10 points, five rebounds and four assists, while Ryan Jafarjian had nine points and six rebounds. Nate Culbreth had a team-high seven assists, along with six points.

Johnson and Scriven were named to the All-Tournament team, along with Waters, Sherman’s John Swabik and Silver Creek’s Dom Jamison. Culbreth was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

“We have six kids who, on any given night, can put up 20. It was Mike (Johnson) tonight,” North said. “All of them can score the ball and all of them can play defense. I think we’ll be able to score with most teams.”

Chautauqua Lake’s only scorer in double digits on Saturday was Waters with 16 points.

SILVER CREEK’S

JAMISON POURS IN 31

WESTFIELD — Silver Creek relied on its veteran leader on the court to shoulder most of the scoring load on Saturday and it paid off in a big way.

The Black Knights’ Dominic Jamison scored a tournament-high 31 points to propel his team to a 62-41 victory over Sherman in the consolation game of the Westfield Winter Classic.

“I know he’s capable of that,” Silver Creek coach Ralph Jackson said. “He had a couple of rough shooting nights our last two games, but he found it tonight.”

“He was just hitting shots,” Sherman coach Cory Emory said. “(Friday) night, we kind of worked on stopping one person, and when that didn’t work out, we went away from that tonight. He’s obviously the one that hurt us, and he just had a great game.”

Sherman scored the game’s first six points on a pair of 3-pointers, but Silver Creek came back with the next seven points to take the lead. The Black Knights only built upon the lead from there, as the advantage grew to 16-11 after the first quarter. Silver Creek led 20-11 in the second quarter after a Spencer Harford 3-pointer and increased the lead to 26-13 on a 3-pointer by Darren Jimenez with 4:16 remaining in the first half.

“We’re not really ready to make adjustments yet. With only four days of practice, we got ourselves prepared as well as we could for the basic things, but the in-game situations that needed big changes, we weren’t ready for that yet,” said Emory, who had several of his players playing for Clymer/Sherman/Panama in the state football playoffs as late as Nov. 29. “They outplayed us, played with more energy than us, and just hit more shots. They played really well tonight and we did not.”

Silver Creek held a 32-16 lead at halftime after a Jamison 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first half. Jamison had 11 points in the first half and followed with 20 points in the second half, including an and-one layup and a 3-pointer early in the third quarter to extend the lead. He then had the same sequence in the fourth quarter, just as Sherman appeared to be showing signs of a turnaround. Jamison had six 3-pointers on the night, four of which came in the second half.

His performance was a welcome sight for Jackson after a pair of losses began his first season as Silver Creek’s head coach.

“They didn’t hang their heads after last night. They came back to work and they competed,” said Jackson of his team after a 20-point loss to Westfield a night prior to Saturday’s contest. “It’s a good thing that we had a quick turnaround after (Friday’s) game. … I thought we came out with good energy tonight.”

A third-place finish might not be what Silver Creek had hoped for coming into the tournament, but the Black Knights played their best game of the season on Saturday and the result reflected it.

“I’ve been coaching in this tournament for a long time. It’s a great atmosphere here, I love coming over here. It’s just always a good time when we’re playing here,” said Jackson, who was previously Forestville’s head coach.

Harford also had five rebounds and Jimenez had three assists, while each had 6 points for the Black Knights. Sammy Braidich was second on the team with 9 points. Blake Mitchell led Sherman with 9 points while Paul Majchrzak and John Swabik each had 8 points for the Wildcats.

PORTVILLE WINS

ACE TOURNAMENT

PORTVILLE — Dalton Tobola had 11 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals to earn Most Valuable Player honors as Portville beat Bolivar-Richburg 48-46 to capture the ACE Tournament on Saturday.

Zayne Tarr led the Panthers (2-0) with 16 points and nine rebounds while Mike Stillman added 8 points and three assists.

Portville led 22-16 at halftime and eventually led by five late before Bolivar-Richburg hit a three-quarter court shot at the buzzer to provide the final margin.

Camdyn MacDonell led the Wolverines (2-1) with 19 points and Landon Danaher had 16.

Portville’s Cameron Kalsman and Bolivar-Richburg’s MacDonell were joined on the All-Tournament Team by Bishop Walsh’s Patricio Tufino and North Collins’ Tyler Robinson.

Bishop Walsh won the consolation game.

BOLIVAR-RICHBURG (46)

RDanaher 4 0 9, LDanaher 6 1 16, Greeson 1 0 2, MacDonell 6 7 19, Karnuth 0 0 0, Ellis 0 0 0, Mitchell 0 0 0. Totals 17 8 46.

PORTVILLE (48)

Long 2 0 5, Kalsman 1 2 4, Griffin 1 2 4, Stillman 3 0 8, Tobola 4 2 11, Tarr 7 2 16, Howard 0 0 0, Wenke 0 0 0. Totals 18 8 48.

3-point goal–RDanaher, LDanaher 3, Long, Stillman 2, Tobola.

Bolivar-Richburg 6 10 12 18 — 46

Portville 5 17 14 12 — 48

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