Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Jay Spivey 

For the Clemmons Courier

 

It hasn’t been an easy road so far, but the second-seeded West Forsyth boys basketball team has continued to advance through the first two rounds of the state tournament this past week. 

West Forsyth edged Waxhaw’s Marvin Ridge in last Tuesday’s first round in Clemmons, then squeaked past South Caldwell in overtime this Friday at home. And now, West Forsyth faces the task of playing host Tuesday night in the third round to No. 7 Watauga, who upended No. 10 Mount Tabor this past Friday night in overtime in Boone. 

“Tonight was the definition of survive and advance,” said Coach Marlon Brim after Friday’s win.

Jacari Brim and Kamauri Manuel led West Forsyth (26-3) with 15 points apiece in the victory against South Caldwell (18-8). 

The Titans led the Spartans 31-17 with 6:11 left in the third quarter, but the Spartans whittled it to 42-40 after a jumper by Caleb Greene with 2:03 left in the fourth quarter.  

Manuel was fouled with 32.7 seconds left and missed the first free throw and made the second to make it 43-40. Jacari Brim was fouled with 18.2 seconds left with a chance of sealing the game, but he missed two free throws to keep the lead at 43-40. 

“I thought we handled it, but I thought our free throws at the end didn’t close it out,” Marlon Brim said. “And it wasn’t just one person. We had two or three people miss free throws. So, when it gets to that fourth quarter, we’ve got to close out games and that means we’ve got to make free throws, we get stops, we get rebounds and come back and make free throws again.” 

After Jacari Brim’s missed free throws, South Caldwell set up, passed it around, and Brian Anderson took a pass on the left wing and nailed a 3-pointer with two seconds left to send the game to overtime at 43-43. 

“We practice that stuff all the time,” Marlon Brim said. “And the kid just hit a shot. And at the end of the day, I don’t think our close out was the greatest either. We closed out with a hand down instead of a hand up. And when he saw that he just rose up and shot the 3 and made it.”  

“So, at the end of the day we survived and advanced. But let’s get ready for Tuesday.” 

The game was far from over as it went to overtime.  

Jordan Tate of the Titans nailed a 3-pointer 37 seconds into the 4-minute overtime period to take a 46-43 lead. However, Gavin Frasure of the Spartans banked in a shot with 3:13 remaining to make it 46-45. With 1:33 remaining, Jacari Brim followed his own miss and was fouled. He made the free throw to extend the lead to 49-45. 

“I thought Tate’s 3 in overtime was big and that gave us the momentum,” Marlon Brim said. “Then after that, we made free throws even though we missed one or two, we still made enough to get the win.” 

Jacari Brim missed the first of two free throws with 1:18 left in overtime, and with 57.8 seconds remaining, he made the first free throw and missed the second to push the lead to 51-45.  

Caleb Greene of the Spartans hit a floater with 45 seconds remaining to make it 51-47, but Jacari Brim made the first of two free throws and missed the second with 40.4 seconds remaining, and Manuel made two free throws with 25.6 seconds left to push the lead to 54-47. 

West Forsyth finished the game shooting 12 of 21 from the free-throw line.  

Connor Setzer led South Caldwell with 14 points and Tyler Cline chipped in with 10.  

In many respects, Friday’s win against South Caldwell was very similar to last Tuesday’s first-round game against Marvin Ridge in which West Forsyth won 77-70. 

“(South Caldwell) ran some good stuff, but they also shot it a little bit better than Marvin Ridge,” Marlon Brim said. “But also, Marvin Ridge played man and South Caldwell played zone, which slows you down. And so, when it slows you down it limits possessions. And I give them credit, they stayed in the zone no matter what the score was. We got up (14), they stayed in the zone. We made some unforced turnovers that led to them getting easy baskets, So, we’ve just got to get better with that.” 

In last Tuesday’s win against Marvin Ridge, Jacari Brim led West Forsyth with 19 points, Manuel had 17, and Princeton Scott and Tate chipped in with 15 points apiece.  

West Forsyth led Marvin Ridge 24-19 after the first quarter and 39-32 at halftime. West Forsyth led 53-36 with 3:48 left in the third quarter after a layup by Tate, but Marvin Ridge (11-15) trimmed it to 56-44 after the third quarter. 

The Mavericks trimmed the lead to 60-52 with 5:54 left in the fourth quarter  they made enough free throws down the stretch to seal the win despite struggling for the night, ending at 19 of 31.

“I think (a tight game) makes us better because now you’re working on cutting, backdoor, you know screens, stuff we practice on,” Marlon Brim said. “So, I thought the two games we’ve played, the first game made us better for (Friday) and tonight should make us better for Tuesday.” 

Tuesday’s third-round in Clemmons against Watauga will take place after Watauga nipped Mount Tabor 80-77 in overtime in Boone this past Friday night with the help of 27 points by Josiah Railey and 25 points from Cade Keller.  

“Watauga’s good,” Marlon Brim said. “They played in our MLK Classic against East (Forsyth), and that game went into overtime with East pulling it out (65-58). But Watauga’s got good guard play and got some good frontcourt players. So, we’ve just got to be ready to play.” 

Jackson Love added 16 points for Watauga in helping it defeat Mount Tabor. Snook Peterkin led Mount Tabor (23-6) with 40 points and Will Koonin chipped in with 15.

Had Mount Tabor won, it would have set up the fifth meeting this season between Central Piedmont 4-A rivals West Forsyth and Mount Tabor. Mount Tabor won the final of the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Bracket of the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic just before Christmas, West Forsyth won the two regular-season meetings, and Mount Tabor came from behind to defeat West Forsyth in the Central Piedmont 4-A tournament championship at Reagan.  

So, there might have been some looking ahead this past week from both West Forsyth and Mount Tabor. That’s a moot point now. Instead, it will be a battle with Watauga, which finished tied for the Northwestern 4-A/3-A championship with South Caldwell, but Watauga won the regular-season championship after defeating twice – 76-64 in Hudson and 80-61 in Boone, both in January.

“You don’t know what kids are thinking,” Marlon Brim said. “So, to me, I thought we were focused. I thought our defense in the first half (against South Caldwell) was great. So, I thought we were locked in, but we had a moment where I think our guys were kind of like, ‘We’re up. We’re just going to cruise through instead of pushing through like we have early in the year.”