By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Basketball can be a fickle master. A team once hot on the heels of history suddenly turns cold. Or a player once considered an afterthought in a team’s performance just as suddenly turns into the brightest of stars.
That fickleness at least partially explains the Watauga varsity men’s basketball team’s loss to longtime league rival South Caldwell on Feb. 20, 74-65, in the Northwestern Conference Championship Tournament final hosted by the Pioneers in Lentz Eggers Gym. Sometimes you have a bad night. After the Spartans defeated the Pioneers on Jan. 13 in Boone, 70-63, Watauga returned the favor on Feb. 7, in near dominating fashion, 72-59, in Hudson. It was the first victory in the Pioneers’ six-game winning streak over the following two weeks. Then South Caldwell returned the favor.
After running roughshod over every Northwestern Conference opponent during that win streak, including vs. No. 1 seeded Freedom on Feb. 11 and the earlier, convincing win over the Spartans, most High Country Sports fans figured the conference tournament championship would be all but handed to the Pioneers — that is until South Caldwell similarly manhandled Freedom in the tournament semifinals to reach the final. Then all bets were off.
After Watauga’s semifinal demolition of St. Stephens on Feb. 19 (79-43), the Pioneers’ head coach, Bryson Payne, was asked what he expected from South Caldwell in the final.
“They are well coached, they play hard and they have some shooters,” said Payne who, in retrospect, might have been proven to be a master of understatement.
Under more normal game conditions and the score closer, it is unlikely that Watauga’s core varsity players would have left the court against South Caldwell on Feb. 20, unless they absolutely had to. But these were not normal times.
Almost from the get-go, the Pioneer sharpshooters were not hitting their mark, shot attempts clanging off the rim and mostly bouncing into the waiting arms of South Caldwell’s Gavin Frasure (11 rebounds on the night), Sam Keaton (10), Colby Greene (5), Gantt Prince (7) and Carter Anderson (7).
Inside the paint, it was arguably more embarrassing for Watauga. Keaton was credited with five blocked shots but it seemed like more. And those blocked shots hardly explained the Pioneer layup opportunities, the ball rising to strike the backboard then flying over the rim, missing the intended basket.
Meanwhile, the Spartans seemed unable to miss. In the first half alone, the visitors from Hudson shot a whopping 75 percent from beyond the arc, making good on 9-of-12 attempts. Overall in the opening half, they shot 50 percent from the field, hitting on 13-of-26 shot attempts. Watauga had as many looks, but were only successful on 26.9 percent of field goal attempts in the first half (7-of-26) and 23.5 percent from long range (4-of-17) before the break.
After intermission, it didn’t get any better for Watauga in defending the 6-game winning streak that catapulted the Pioneers into the No. 2 tournament seed and, a night earlier against St. Stephens, into the championship finale.
So midway through the third quarter, his Pioneers down by 18 points in the hands of the first string, Watauga’s Payne benched his starters and inserted the first tier of reserves for almost all of the final four minutes of the third quarter. Other than Cole Lewis’ invigorating 3-pointer right after the change and a pair of free throws by the 5-10, 160 lb. junior guard, the reserves didn’t score much but they also didn’t give up much. By the start of the final period, Watauga was looking at a 50-30 deficit as those aforementioned starters were forced to watch.
Chomping at the bit might have been an understatement for those first string stars as they hoped for another chance to redeem themselves. And, reinserted into the lineup on the court at the final quarter’s start, they did just that.
Down by 20, the Pioneers opened the fourth quarter on a 17-3 run that had a jampacked Watauga grandstands humming with hope for a completed comeback. They pulled to within respectability, 53-47, after their shots started hitting and the disruptive defense that characterized the most recent six games returned.
But with the game clock ticking down, needing to get the ball back after each South Caldwell possession — but the Spartans smartly slowing things down, eating up the clock — the Pioneers were forced to foul. Unfortunately for Watauga, the South Caldwell players rarely missed those opportunities at the charity stripe. A deficit turned to hopeless desperation and the tournament championship that could have been for the Pioneers slipped away into the stillness of the night after the off-the-mountain crowd’s much deserved celebration.
While much of this game was won by the Spartans with their shooting prowess from the perimeter, we also have to give credit to South Caldwell’s rebounding on the defensive end in denying Watauga with second chance opportunities. Overall, SC outrebounded Watauga 46-34, but the real story came in looking more closely. Thirty-seven (37) of those rebounds came on the defensive end, meaning after a Pioneer miss.
With the Northwestern Conference tournament now behind them, all of the teams are likely to be invited to the state playoffs. McDowell will be regarded as the top 7A team in the conference, while South Caldwell, Freedom and maybe Watauga will be in the mix for the best 6A teams from the Northwestern Conference. Alexander Central and St. Stephens are almost sure to make the field, too.
KEY PERFORMERS
- SC – Gavin Frasure: 21 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists
- SC – Sam Keaton: 10 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 blocked shots, 1 steal
- SC – Gantt Prince: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists
- SC – Carter Anderson: 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists
- SC – Colby Greene: 7 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals
- WAT – Cade Keller: 19 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals
- WAT – Evan Burroughs: 17 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
- WAT – Jackson Love: 14 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist
- WAT – Bowen Mayo: 8 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal
