South Warren pulled it off.
The Spartans, seeded fifth in the District 14 Boys’ Basketball Tournament, played hard from start to finish and earned a 59-51 upset win over fourth-seeded Greenwood on Monday evening in opening round competition at Greenwood High School.
It’s never easy playing at “The Swamp,” and Greenwood has been tough to beat there, but behind Tyler Martin’s big outing, South Warren (15-13 overall) was able to end the Gators’ season on their home court.
“It was a big win,” Martin said. “We were expected to lose – that’s we said in the locker room. So, we came out here and gave it our all, and sure enough, we won.”
Martin led the Spartans with a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds and was one of four South Warren players in double figures. Just behin Martin, Colin Moore finished with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Austin Howard and Gavin Spurrier each added 10 points.
With its victory, South Warren now advances to the semifinal round where it’ll face top-seeded Bowling Green (19-10) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
“We said we were 0-0 (coming in),” South Warren coach Nelson Cundiff said. “We needed to take care of the basketball and play together, and all of my players shared the ball extremely well and were very unselfish. I’m very proud of that.”
The two sides exchanged baskets over the course of the opening half.
After the game was tied at 11-all with 1:28 remaining in the first quarter, Noah Stansbury’s layup just before the buzzer gave Greenwood a 13-11 lead at the end of one.
Moore’s three-pointer put South Warren back up 18-15 with just over three minutes left in the second, and it took a 22-19 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“Well, we have to shoot a pretty good percentage to win the game and give them credit – they played hard defense on us,” Greenwood coach Bob Pels said. “They worked hard. We just didn’t shoot well. There’s really no excuses.”
It was all Spartans in the ensuing half.
Martin’s three-point play at the 4:41 mark of the third quarter pushed South Warren’s lead to 27-21, and another bucket by the Spartans made it an eight-point game and forced a Greenwood timeout.
Another three-point play by Martin made it 34-23, and South later led 37-25 entering the fourth.
“We had some big people step up,” Martin said. “Gavin Spurrier stepped up and got a lot of huge rebounds. Colin Moore had a lot of put-backs. Everybody just stepped up this game, and it was great to have.”
The offenses came alive in the final quarter, but more so for the Spartans.
Moore’s score inside put South Warren up 44-32 with 4:41 remaining, but Greenwood answered with a 10-4 run – highlighted by a Luke Littrell three – to cut its deficit to 48-42 with 2:04 left. The Spartans quickly regrouped and were able to take a 52-44 lead with 1:08 left.
Littrell carried the Gators (16-15) with 15 points, while Jack Roberts added 11. Stansbury finished with 10.
The Gators’ last surge came within the final minute, as they made it 55-49 with 20.9 seconds remaining, but South Warren was able to hit free throws down the stretch and seal it.
“Every person we put in the game, they came and played well and did what we asked,” said Cundiff. “This was just a great win for our program.”
–Senior writer Tyler Mansfield can be reached at mansfield.sportingtimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TMansfieldST.–
