Clymer’s Elli Bodamer (23) looks to pass while defended by Silver Creek’s Gracie Williams during the first half of Thursday’s CCAA West 2 girls basketball game at Silver Creek High School. P-J photo by Braden Carmen

SILVER CREEK — It’s not often that the losing coach of a contest feels more optimistic than the winning coach does. Thursday night, however, Silver Creek Black Knights head coach Kevin Rice saw the positives in his team’s 30-20 loss to the division-leading Clymer Pirates.

“We can take pride in the fact that we played tough with a team that legitimately has a chance to be in the State Final Four,” Rice said. “I’m very proud of that.”

In the end, though, it was Clymer that earned the victory in the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association West 2 girls basketball contest at Silver Creek High School. After the Black Knights held Clymer to just four points in the opening period, a 14-2 advantage in the second quarter for the visiting Pirates (9-1, 5-0) proved to be too much for Silver Creek (4-6, 0-4) to overcome.

“I was so proud of them in the first quarter,” Rice said. “I said to my girls, ‘You just held the number two team in the state to two points in the first quarter, and you had them befuddled.'”

Silver Creek scored the game’s first points on a bucket by Gracie Williams. Clymer did not score until more than five minutes of action had passed, but the Pirates had a pair of buckets in the final three minutes to end the first quarter with a 4-2 advantage.

“The last two games, we have not come out and played well,” said Clymer head coach David Bodamer. “… Where we’re at, number one in the league and 9-1 overall, we’re going to have to step up our game.”

After the first quarter, Clymer looked more like the first place team it has been all season. Just like in the first quarter, the Pirates held the Black Knights to just one basket in the period, but the Clymer offense woke up in the second frame. Four different players scored in the second quarter to give the Pirates an 18-4 lead at halftime. That lead grew to 28-10 after the third quarter.

But in the fourth quarter, Silver Creek was the better team. For the entire period, the Black Knights outscored Clymer 10-2.

“I don’t think we played all the way through,” said Coach Bodamer. “Especially at the end of the game there, we can’t not finish.”

The game’s final eight minutes paired with its first five minutes of action gave Rice plenty to feel confident about moving forward in the season.

“It started with the Dunkirk game,” Rice said, referencing a fourth quarter comeback victory over the Marauders, 39-31, earlier this month. “The one thing we talked about in the locker room after that game was the ability to just play through the entire game, regardless of how bad it gets at times.”

Makayla Kelly led Silver Creek with eight points, including two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Kelly also had four steals. Six Black Knights scored in the contest, while the leading rebounders were Lucille Jimerson with eight and Gracelin Stevens with five.

Clymer’s leading scorer was Alexys Neckers with 9 points, which was less than half her average of over 22 points per game coming into the contest. Rice called Neckers a “dynamite player” and was proud of his team’s effort against her defensively.

Neckers, Ava Nyweide and Elli Bodamer combined for 24 of the 30 Clymer points in the victory. Bodamer also had 11 rebounds and five steals, while Neckers had a game-high 10 steals.

Each team is back in action on Sunday, as Clymer takes on Westfield in the opening game of a tournament at SUNY Fredonia’s Dods Hall, while Silver Creek follows with a matchup with the Fredonia Hillbillies.

“If we don’t show up different than this, it’s not going to be pretty,” Coach Bodamer said.

CLYMER (30)

Heslink 0 0 0, Nyweide 3 2 8, White 0 2 2, Burchanowski 1 0 2, Neckers 4 1 9, LJohnson 1 0 2, Bodamer 3 0 7. Totals 12 5 30.

SILVER CREEK (20)

Karnes 1 0 2, Blair 0 0 0, Williams 1 0 2, Daniels 0 0 0, Beadle 1 2 4, Stevens 1 0 2, Jimerson 1 0 2, Kelly 3 0 8. Totals 8 2 20.

3-point goals–Bodamer, Kelly 2.

Clymer 4 14 10 2 — 30

Silver Creek 2 2 6 10 — 20