Trailing 17-10 at halftime, the Pirates surged in the second half to come back and defeat the visiting Black Knights 33-24 for their first Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 West victory of the season.

“First game of the league and getting off on the right foot is a big first step,” said Clymer head coach David Bodamer. “When we look at our league schedules, every night is going to be a battle like this. So any win you get is great and you really need to win the ones at home.”

The game was a true story of two halves, with Silver Creek (7-2, 0-1) dominating the first and Clymer (8-1, 1-0) dominating the second.

In the first half, Silver Creek outdid Clymer on both ends of the floor outscoring them 17-10. Abby Rice was once again at the forefront of the Black Knights’ attack either making or assisting every field goal in the entire game, the lone point Abby was not involved in was scored by Maidre Arenas at the charity stripe.

Clymer’s Mikala Einink puts up a layup during Tuesday’s game against Silver Creek. P-J photo by Scott Reagle

“She shot very well in the first half,” Silver Creek head coach Tammy Rice said about her daughter, Abby. “Our halftime conversation is always ‘now it’s time for other people to start scoring.’ They’re going to focus on her and she won’t be able to score the whole game. There is a lot of talent on this team and a lot of girls can do amazing things it’s just we didn’t do it tonight.”

While everything was going right for Rice and the Black Knights early, the Pirates struggled to make anything happen. The second quarter was the low point for the Pirates who scored just 4 points in the final two minutes of the quarter. Despite the low scoring, the late bit of action in the quarter gave Clymer something to build upon in the second half.

“The conversation at half was for the defense to continue what we were doing and on offense just focus,” Bodamer said. “We were getting good looks, just keep doing what we were doing and the shots have got to start falling.”

In the second half, Clymer looked like a new team and Silver Creek began to fold under the pressure of the Pirates’ defense. Clymer’s defense was capitalizing on sloppy passes and pressuring Silver Creek into mistakes that led to turnovers.

In total the Black Knights ended up turning the ball over 28 times. Silver Creek crawled into the fourth quarter with a 22-17 lead, but it was only a matter of time before Clymer took over as it had all of the momentum.

The fourth quarter was like the first quarter that Clymer scored first and it was a sign of things to come as it scored 16 points in the final frame. Clymer made quick work of the deficit as Natalie Johnson scored one early from the charity stripe, Abby White then collected the rebound on the second free throw and assisted Mikala Einink to make it 22-20. Then less than a minute later White was once again assisting Einink who this time drilled the Pirates only shot from beyond the arc to take the lead at 23-22.

Once the Pirates had the lead it was game over as they cruised past a tired Silver Creek squad that was only able to make one basket in the fourth quarter.

“We had a lot of days off and we knew that conditioning would be an issue,” said Coach Rice. “We had the lead through three quarters and we just started making a ton of mental mistakes. We turned the ball over multiple times and didn’t settle into the game and use our possessions wisely.”

Clymer was led by Alexys Neckers with 9 points, three rebounds, two steals and one block; Einink had 8 points, three rebounds and three steals; Aurora Ordines added 8 points, four rebounds and four steals; and White collected nine rebounds and dished two assists.

Silver Creek was led by Rice with 21 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and three blocks; and Jade Bouvier had six rebounds and five steals.

SILVER CREEK (24)

Eldridge 0 1 1, Arenas 0 0 0, Karcz 0 0 0, Martinez 0 0 0, Bouvier 1 0 2, Schneider 0 0 0, Rice 7 5 21, Jimerson 0 0 0, Lawton 0 0 0. Totals 8 6 24.

CLYMER (33)

Ordines 2 4 8, Einink 3 1 8, White 0 0 0, Woods 0 0 0, Neckers 4 2 10, Johnson 1 2 4, Honey 1 1 3. Totals 11 10 33.

3-point goals–Rice 2, Einink.

Silver Creek 8 9 5 2 — 24

Clymer 6 4 7 16 — 33

Jayvees: Clymer won 43-10.