LOST CREEK — South Harrison coach Tom Sears’ offensive adjustment came at halftime.
“They were playing really heavy on our three best players — (Corey) Boulden, (Austin) Peck and (Noah) Burnside — and they were leaving other guys open,” Sears said of Trinity’s defense in the first half. “We talked about it at halftime. We said, ‘Somebody else is going to have to hit shots in order to pull them out of the paint.’
“Cam Evans hit some big 3’s, and if you watched, they started going out of the paint to cover him, and that opened things up for Corey and for Noah.”
Trailing by a point at the half, the Hawks hit 5 of their 8 3-pointers in the second half — Evans hit three 3-pointers and Boulden sank two — to pull away for a 51-35 victory over Trinity in the Class AA Region II Section 2 final on Friday at South Harrison.
The Hawks will host Petersburg in the Class AA Region II co-final at 7 p.m. Tuesday at South Harrison. Petersburg lost 64-61 to Frankfort in the Class AA Region II Section 1 final on Friday night.
A win in regionals would give the Hawks another trip to state and would mark the first time in school history that the Hawks have qualified for the state tournament in consecutive years.
The Hawks didn’t only celebrate a sectional championship on Friday night. They also posed for a picture with Burnside in recognition of his 1,000th point, which he scored on a layup in the first quarter.
“It’s a moment that you’ve never felt before,” Burnside said. “You only score 1,000 points once, and when that shot went down, I was like, ‘Man, all that work paid off. All those years of grinding, all those years of playing basketball and never giving up.’ I’m really excited and thankful to have this moment.”
Burnside’s layup gave the Hawks a 7-6 first-quarter lead, but a free throw by 6-foot-5 Trinity forward Aaron White tied the game at 7 at the end of the first quarter.
Another way the Warriors were able to limit the Hawks’ offensive opportunities was by slowing the game down with longer offensive possessions. Although it eventually resulted in a player-control foul, Trinity’s first offensive possession of the second quarter took 56 seconds.
“We kind of played into that a little bit and we knew we needed to speed the game up, and that’s when we really started playing better,” Sears said.
Against the Hawk’s zone in the first half, Trinity’s Chayce Adams hit his first 3-pointer of the second quarter, giving Trinity a 12-10 lead.
A bit later, Trinity’s Levi Teets, who had four steals, got a steal and went coast to coast for a layup, drew a foul and hit the plus-one free throw, extending the Warriors’ lead to 15-10.
South Harrison turned it over seven times in the first half.
But despite that, the Hawks quickly tied it with Boulden’s 3-pointer from the right wing and on a layup by Peck.
South Harrison got 37 rebounds and took advantage of a fourth-chance scoring opportunity that resulted in a 3-pointer from the right wing by Caden Davis, which tied the game at 18.
“We rebounded really well,” Sears said. “It was a point of emphasis. We knew we had to rebound. I thought we defended really well. Offensively, we struggled a little bit, but we found our way and we’re able to pull away at the end, and now it’s on to regionals.”
But another one of Trinity’s six steals was by Carter Hartsock, who stole the ball near halftime and scored a transition layup that gave the Hawks a 21-20 halftime lead.
Boulden, who had a double-double as he scored a team-high 19 points with 11 rebounds, hit consecutive 3-pointers midway through the third quarter, which started an 8-0 South Harrison run that also included Boulden’s floater at the end of the third quarter.
“We just weren’t hitting shots, and I think that’s what the difference in the game was,” Boulden said. “The second half, we started hitting shots, and that really changed the game.”
Following a put back by Klimas and Evans’ second 3-pointer of the game from the left corner, Boulden hit a layup, drew a foul and sank the free throw, giving the Hawks a 45-31 lead.
Evans, who scored nine points, buried his third 3-pointer of the game from the right corner with 1:46 remaining, putting the Hawks ahead 49-33.
Trinity was led by Adams, who scored 12 points, Hartsock, who added nine, and White, who finished with seven points.
BY ANDREW WILSON/WV NEWS
SOUTH HARRISON 51, TRINITY 35
Trinity 7 21 9 5 — 35
South Harrison 7 13 17 14 — 51
Trinity Christian (13-11) Chayce Adams 5 0-0 12, Carter Hartsock 4 1-2 9, Aaron White 2 3-4 7, Lucas Kniska 1 1-4 4, Levi Teets 1 1-1 3, Benjamin Lohmann 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 6-11 35.
South Harrison (22-2) Corey Boulden 7 2-3 19, Cam Evans 3 0-0 9, Caden Davis 3 0-0 8, Noah Burnside 2 1-6 7, Austin Peck 2 0-0 4, Seth Klimas 2 0-0 4, Luke Given 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 3-9 51.
3-pointers: Trinity 3 (Adams 2, Kniska), SH 8 (Evans 3, Boulden 3, Davis 2).
