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Leyton pulls away against Storm

Warriors earn spot in MAC semifinals vs. Bayard

DALTON – For almost 11 minutes, it looked as though it would be a long, drawn-out struggle to see whether Leyton High or Creek Valley would advance to the semifinals of the 2015 Boys' MAC Tournament.

But when the score reached 22-22 with about 5:40 left in the half Tuesday night, the Warriors' offensive depth began to turn the tide.

Though facing stiff resistance early, the defending MAC champions and third-seeded Warriors went on to eliminate the No. 6 Storm 73-56 in Dalton. Leyton earned a trip to Sidney Middle School on Thursday where it will face No. 2 Bayard at 8 p.m.

"We played very well for a quarter and a half, but then we didn't set screens very well and it seemed like Leyton got to every loose ball," said Storm head coach Roger Behrends. "But the effort was there. I can't say I'm unhappy with the effort I saw."

In the other quarterfinal games, the top-seeded Minatare Indians (10-0) faced no challenge from the visiting No. 8 South Platte Knights (1-9) in a 61-19 victory. No. 5 Potter-Dix (5-7) became the only lower seed on either the boy's or girls' side to eliminate a higher seed as it vanquished No. 4 Garden County (3-6) in Oshkosh, 53-39. Minatare and Potter-Dix will square off in their semifinal game Thursday at 4:45 p.m. at Sidney Middle School.

Eventually it was a trio of sophomores that finally began the momentum shift toward Leyton.

Drew Brenner got it started when he drained a three-pointer to break the deadlock. Zach Hellie then followed with three straight buckets and Kenny Ernest added the exclamation point.

When Ernest drained a turn-around jumper with two minutes left in the half, the back-and-forth struggle suddenly had morphed into a 33-22 Warriors advantage. It was an advantage that would stay with the home team the balance of the night.

"Our offense was really on tonight," said Warriors' co-captain James Rushman. "It probably wasn't our best night defensively, but 73 points is the most we've scored this year."

The offensive output was led by a career-high 26 points from Brenner, who opened his night with 21 in the first half. Brenner's shooting touch included going 6 for 11 from beyond the arc and 4 of 5 inside the curve. Cody McKay followed with 15 points, while Hellie added 10.

The Storm was led by Roy Koech and Brett Godfrey – each with 15 points. Colin Brott also reached double figures with 11.

After the sophomore trio gave the Warriors their 11-point lead, they maintained the advantage to the half at 39-28. The second half opened with McKay and Dane McConnell trading buckets before the Warriors slowly increased their lead.

Though Godfrey hit on a pair of treys and Brott drained another for Creek Valley, the visitors slipped farther back after three periods, 57-41. Jared Westman hit the only bomb for Dalton in the frame to help reverse a small Storm gain.

"Our defense is usually top notch, but we've struggled sometimes offensively," Koech said. "But tonight we had a pretty solid night with our offense but weren't nearly as good as we're capable of defensively. Their size advantage definitely hurt us."

Leyton opened the final eight minutes with a 7-2 run punctuated by Brenner's sixth three-pointer of the night. Briefly, the Warriors padded their lead to 23 points but were reeled back into the final 17-point spread.

As for defending their title, the Warriors are taking one step at a time.

"We're not thinking about defending our title, we're just trying to win our next game," Brenner said.

 

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