C2D3: Bears fail to Advance

BLOOMFIELD — Hoping to advance past the district final and into a sectional playoff game for the first time in school history, the Greenville Bears basketball team faced a morbid ironic result.

The No. 1 seeded Bears couldn’t overcome inconvenient shooting struggles and were unable to hold off No. 2 Advance in a 64-61 loss in Friday night’s Class 2 District 3 final at Bloomfield, denying the Bears (22-2), arguably the school’s best team ever, a first district crown in its existence.

Greenville was led by Easton Evans (18 points), Talan McDaniel (12) and Ty Huffmaster (11).

“We got pounded on the porch tonight for probably the first time all year,” Greenville head coach Nathan Walk said. “They shot it a lot better from the perimeter than we did. We got it inside, we got pretty much anything we wanted, but the ball didn’t go in tonight. That kind of rattled us, and we got away from what we do. We told them that the team that generally plays like themselves wins — and we didn’t play like ourselves tonight.

“We gave ourselves a chance. I loved our effort, but the ball just didn’t roll our way. It seems like the ball never rolls our way (in district finals).”

The first quarter was an exercise in measured attacks and patient defenses.

Advance decided to milk possessions in the hope of finding the best shot against a clinically ruthless Greenville zone defense and slowly the strategy worked. The Hornets used an 8-0 run in the latter stages of the first quarter to lead 17-11 after eight minutes had ticked off the clock.

Greenville got seven points from Evans in the quarter that was full of nervous errors as the weight of the moment may have trickled into the Bears psyche a little.

Scoring dried up early on in the second quarter as the teams exchanged one make apiece over three-plus minutes to keep Advance up 19-13.

Consecutive makes by Trey Porter and McDaniel pulled Greenville within 19-17 and back-to-back attacks at the tin by Evans ultimately forged a 21-all tie.

A minute later, an Carter Irions leaner put the Bears up 25-23 and that’s how it stood going into half.

The Hornets opened the second half feeling good offensively to push out to a 31-27 lead in the first two-and-a-half minutes.

Warmer shooting temps for Advance didn’t hurt the Hornets’ cause as their lead moved to 40-32 just south of the 3-minute mark.

The Bears used a welcome 7-2 run over the last minutes to pull within 42-39 with a potentially blazing fourth quarter yet to come.

Greenville pulled within a point quickly into the final quarter, but the Hornets answered with four straight points to get some breathing room at 46-41.

The shots that would normally ring true all season seemed to enjoy the rim more than advised — and normally routine Greenville makes now became less effective as the Hornets continued to sting at the most inopportune intervals.

Down nine points late, the Bears faced an even more tenacious Advance defense that appeared to have a good sense of its place in Monday’s Sweet 16 and began to blister Greenville’s offensive movement.

Greenville got within four points on a patented ice cube chill Evans trey and with 2:12 to go, anything was still possible.

Jeb Huff hit a 3 with 1:09 to go and Greenville was down 58-55.

Yet it was Advance who did just enough to live up to its name, hitting multiple key free tosses in the closing moments, crushing the dreams of a fantastic Bears season becoming even better.

Walk praised the Advance coaching staff and the Hornet players for performing well enough to win and thought maybe being in this position once again with a Bears unit considered maybe the best ever added to the intensity and nerves.

“We played in the district final last year and we were the No. 1 seed in the district title game two years ago,” Walk said. “I would assume with the conference tournament championship we won in overtime, there wouldn’t be any nerves, but it’s one of those deals that it could’ve played a part.

“It’s an enormous weight for a kid to carry. As soon as we started rolling, it was like a slow roar, and it kept getting louder. I had kids coming to me telling me they were getting only 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night thinking about the district tournament. I would tell them to enjoy it, you’ve got to enjoy basketball. It’s a hard lesson to learn.”