Eddies eliminated by Berrien Springs, 48-42

Published 2:55 pm Thursday, March 12, 2009

By By TOM NYHUIS / Vigilant/Argus
March magic got under way Monday night in Class B District action at Lakeshore High School but the magic wasn't there for Edwardsburg or Buchanan as their season came to an end. In the opening game of the night Berrien Springs held on to advance with a 48-42 win over conference rival Edwardsburg.
The second contest of the night saw the host Lakeshore Lancers dominate Buchanan to end the Bucks season 71-51.
Berrien Springs will face Dowagiac on Wednesday in a 6 p.m. game and the Lancers will meet the St. Joseph Bears in their third meeting of the season. The Bears hold a 2-0 advantage over the Lancers this season.
This will be the first meeting this season for the Shamrocks and Dowagiac.
Edwardsburg had the Shamrocks on the ropes late in the opening contest but was unable to land the knock out punch in the final minutes as the Eddies season comes to an end for first year coach Dan Gunn and his team closing out the season with an 8-13 record.
Brian Sevison scored a game high 25 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead Edwardsburg charge.
Berrien Spring built a comfortable 33-12 lead after two quarters of play sparked by Mark Westendorp's three 3-pointers in the second quarter. Berrien led by one after the first eight minutes 7-6. In the first half the Shamrocks controlled the boards at both ends of the court as Greg Toliver owned the glass in the first half pulling in seven of his game high 11 boards in the opening half.
"In that second quarter we lost our poise and our confidence," Gunn said following the loss. "I was awfully proud of them in the second half coming out and making a game of it. It would have been easy to put our heads between our legs and go home. I actually thought we were going to get it done in the fourth quarter."
In the second half the Eddies began chipping away at the deficit and trailed by 18 heading into the final eight minutes as Sevison scored 10 in the third quarter as the Eddies outscored the Shamrocks 14-9.
Edwardsburg opened the fourth with an 11-0 run to get the Shamrocks back on their heels cutting the lead to seven with 4:19 to play. After a Matt Little bucket and one the Shamrocks built the lead back to 10 47-37. Nick Muir knocked down a three and scored a bucket off a turnover to pull the Eddies back to within five, 47-42, at the three minute mark but were unable to get the ball to fall through the net in the final three minutes having several attempts at cutting the lead to under five.
"I would like to see Jake Harroff just one time and pull up and take a jumper rather then duck his head and dive inside. We've been talking about that and I think he'll work on that. In a game like that at the end you need a little luck. A couple of those shot's were pretty good we just missed them. If we get it down to three it would have changed it a lot more."
Little hit 1-of-3 free throws in the final 25 seconds of the game to finish with a team high 16 points to advance the Shamrocks to Wednesday semi-final game.
"We get a chance to play on Wednesday is the good thing," Berrien coach Steve Spenner said. "That's all it comes down to. Am I disappointed in the way we played and handled ourselves? Sure and we have to do better on Wednesday for sure. Our kids have done a good job all year and they just got themselves in a situation that they were not used to. Toliver is the only player that has significant playing time from a year ago and has played in a tournament game. Our kids just panicked and didn't do a very good job of executing. We didn't do any of the good things that we did in the first half to make ourselves successful. We played not to lose instead of to win and hopefully we learned from it. If we can put a couple of quarters together we could be pretty good,"
Berrien Spring finished the night with a 26-18 rebounding edge.
EDWARDSBURG 42
Brian Sevison 10 3-3 25, Jake Harroff 2 1-4 4, Ron Preston 0 0-2 0, Kyle Dale 1 0-0 2, Nick Muir 4 0-0 10, James Hack 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 4-9 42
BERRIEN SPRINGS 48
Ryne Siebenmark 2 2-2 6, Matt Little 6 2-4 16, Greg Toliver 3 0-0 6, Mark Westendorp 3 0-0 9, Oluwaseunt Idowu 1 0-0 2, Anthony Johnson 1 1-1 3, Jason Newson 3 0-2 6. Totals 19 5-9 48
Edwardsburg 6 12 26 42
Berrien Springs 7 33 44 48
3-point goals: Edwardsburg 4 (Sevison 2, Muir 2) Berrien Springs 5 (Little 2, Westendorp 3). Edwardsburg 12 Berrien Springs 10. Varsity records: Edwardsburg 8-13 Berrien Springs 13-8