MAC boys’ girls tournament roundups

In their previous meeting, Minatare waited until the end to drop a game-winning 3-point shot on the Creek Valley Storm. Thursday evening at Sidney Middle School, Indians didn’t wait as long.

Spiking three treys in a pivotal second-quarter move, Minatare (9-1) grabbed a five-point halftime lead and held on through the second half of a 51-47 MAC boys semifinal victory against Roger Behrends’ club.

Creek enjoyed an early 9-3 lead, and held that six-point edge, 13-7, at the first break. An acrobatic three-point play from Sam Behrends gave the Storm (5-7) a 19-14 lead, but that’s when the Indians started warming up.

Keyed by consecutive 3-balls from Yovan Perez (who hit the previous game-winner against Creek) and Tyler Golden, Minatare took a 20-19 lead and continued on a 12-0 move that produced a 26-19 advantage.

Creek’s Luke Cavalli scored right before the half, leaving the Storm in 26-21 arrears.

“They hit those 3s and it opened things up,” R. Behrends said. “I thought our defense played well, but we didn’t close on those 3-pointers.”

Try as it did, Creek could never draw even in the second half, and the situation got worse when Sam Behrends drew his fourth personal foul at 4:18 of the third period.

When S. Behrends exited, Minatare scored six straight points to take a 35-27 lead, forcing the Storm to bring back their leading scorer.

“I had to bring him back in,” said R. Behrends of the move. “His fourth foul wasn’t a very smart foul at that time. However, Sam is the key to everything we do right now, and with (injured point guard) Lane Godfrey not in there, we had to make the move.”

Yet each time the Storm made a run at tying the game, Minatare always had an answer.

Down 35-30 at the third stop, Creek sliced the deficit to 42-40 on a Cavalli basket with 3:10 remaining, but Javier Guerrero hit an open-floor layup and followed with a pull-up jumper off the right side, and the lead was back to six, 46-40.

S. Behrends answered with a 30-foot 3-pointer, but the Indians did just enough in the final two minutes to hold on.

Guerrero led Minatare with 17 points, Perez and Golden pitching in a dozen apiece.

S. Behrends scored 21 points and Cavalli added 20, accounting for all but six of Creek’s points — which has been a recurring theme recently for the Storm.

“Minatare is a young, talented team,” R. Behrends said. “We work hard, but right now, we have two shooters on this team and that’s it.

“You take away those 3s they hit in the second quarter, they would have scored in the low 30s.

“It would have been nice to pick this one up, especially after losing the last one at the buzzer. We’ll just have to work harder and hopefully, we can step up Saturday,” R. Behrends added.

Minatare will face top-seeded Leyton in Saturday’s 8 p.m. championship game, while Creek squares off against Potter-Dix in Saturday’s third-place game at 4:45 p.m.

MAC boys semifinals

Minatare 51, Creek Valley 47

MINATARE (9-1)

Juarez 1 0-2 2, Perez 4 3-6 12, Guerrero 6 3-4 17, McAllister 3 0-2 6, Golden 5 1-2 12, Longoria 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 7-16 51

CREEK VALLEY (5-7)

Garcia 1 2-3 4, McConnell 1 0-1 2, SBehrends 7 4-5 21, Cavalli 9 2-2 20, Brott 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 8-1147

Minatare 7 19 9 16—51

Creek 13 8 9 17—47

3-point goals —Minatare 4 (Guererro 2, Perez, Golden). Creek 3 (SBehrends 3). Team fouls — Minatare 16, Creek Valley 18. Fouled out — McConnell, Juarez