Savages fall to Centerville in regular season finale

SIGOURNEY - In the end the result didn’t hurt them too much.

If anything the regular season finale games against Centerville may have provided a little bit of a reminder on what to work on before the post season starts. 

On Feb. 10 the Sigourney basketball teams held their regular season finale with games against Centerville. 

The girls fell in their contest 60-52. In the boys game the Big Reds were able to score a 75-61 win over the Savages. 

“Centerville is a good program and they are well-coached, so props to them,” said Sigourney girls head coach Kaylee Weber. “We made a lot of shots in the first half, but we just kind of flopped in the second half. We had a good lead going into the fourth quarter, but let it slip away.”

The Savages led 41-26 after the first three quarters of the game last Monday. Then Centerville went on the attack in the fourth quarter. A 21-point effort by the Big Reds helped them pull themselves into the game with Sigourney. 

At the same time the Savages may have relied a little too much on their large lead. 

In the fourth quarter shots didn’t seem to fall and the Big Reds out rebounded Sigourney, limiting the Savages to just five points. 

Centerville tied the game at 43 a piece with 1:08 left in  the fourth quarter. After a Sigourney turnover the Big Reds hit a three pointer to give themselves a 46-43 lead with 55 seconds left. 

After both teams turned the ball over on unforced errors the Savages gave the ball to senior Josephine Moore who drove into the lane and was almost immediately fouled. 

Before she was fouled she was able to sink a layup. At the free throw line Moore hit her free throw and tied the game at 46 with just over 30 seconds left. 

The Savages had a chance to take the lead when Centerville tried to get tricky on their inbounds pass. They tried to pass the ball to a player who was running from inbounds to out of bounds. 

The pass arrived too early and the Big Red player caught the ball with one foot out of bounds and another in bounds. 

The turnover gave new life to the Savages who once again threw the ball to Moore. This time she wasn’t fouled and her shot rimmed out and was collected by Centerville. 

The Big Reds had the final shot of regulation, but that missed the hoop entirely and the game went into overtime. 

“We hit some shots in the third, but Centerville’s quarter was the fourth,” Weber said. “It really is demoralizing knowing you have an 18-point lead and lose it all. I expected this game to be close, we just got too comfortable.”

In overtime the Big Reds seemed to continue the scoring they established in the fourth quarter. The Big Reds outscored Sigourney 14-6 and capped off the game with a 60-52 win. 

“We need to learn to not give up,” Weber said. “It is nice that this won’t really hurt us. It goes on our overall record. We have our post season bracket set up, so we just have to prepare for that game.”

Moore led the  scoring for the Savages with 15 points. Brynn Clarahan added 14 points. 

Another 12 points came from Ava Fisch. McKinleyChittick had seven points. Three points came from Becca Gretter and Addy Fineran scored one point. 

In the boys game adversity struck early and that seemed to derail the Savages plan of attack. 

On their third possession   of the game and after he had already scored a layup, junior Solon Yates took the ball across half court. He scanned the floor, jumped and tossed the ball to a teammate.

After he landed on the floor Yates stayed on the ground and scooted over to the sideline holding his left foot. 

From that moment on Yates wouldn’t return to the game. 

“The loss doesn’t bother me, Solon’s injury is the real bothersome thing  from tonight,” said  Mitch Eslick, the head boys basketball coach. “Going into the post season with two starters on crutches isn’t what we want. That’s tough for any school. He’s been playing at a high level, but to go down that early put a cloud over the game.”

Instead of raining on the offense for Sigourney that cloud seemed to make the ball too slick to handle for the Savages. 

Turnover after turnover plagued the Sigourney offense as they stayed close, but fell 75-61 to Centerville. 

A lot of the eventual deficit stemmed from early confidence that Centerville gained from free baskets. 

“Turnovers from us were absolutely killer today,” Eslick said. “Centerville pressured us at the top of the key. We just were a little lazy and sloppy with the basketball. Centerville is a talented team, and we gave them confidence with turnovers early on in the game and they made us pay for those.”

The Savages remained competitive with the Big Reds through the first half, trailing 32-28 at halftime. However in the second half Centerville always seem to extend their lead when Sigourney got a little too close for comfort.  

“Centerville made some big shots when they needed to,” Eslick said. “I thought defensively we did what we wanted them to do and Centerville just made those shots. Turnovers were just really hurt us.”

The Savages were outscored 43-33 in the second half which allowed Centerville to spoil the regular season finale. 

Not all was lost from the contest though. 

“This game will help us in the post season because we will realize that we can’t win games if we don’t hold onto the ball,” Eslick said. “We learned and we got better from this game.”

The Savages started their class 1A district tournament on Feb. 17 when they hosted HLV. Results were not available at press time.