That will remain true for another year.
No. 8 Montcalm fizzled after a competitive start Thursday evening, falling 67-36 against No. 1 Tug Valley in the Class A quarterfinals at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
In their return to the Coliseum after a 47-year hiatus, the Generals were unnerved by the bright lights early but by the time the second quarter rolled around the luster had worn. After shooting 50 percent from the field (5-of-10) in the opening frame the Montcalm offense cratered in the second quarter and bottomed out from there.
The Generals were 3-of-13 from the field in the second quarter (23 percent) and were held scoreless over the first five minutes of the third quarter. That gave Tug the necessary time to build a double-digit lead and roll from there.
“Hats off to Tug Valley,” Montcalm head coach Adam Havens said. “That’s an amazing program. We came in with a a game plan and for the first few minutes we felt like we executed our game plan pretty well. We tried to keep it close, slow them down. That’s a team that you can’t slow them down for 32 minutes.”
Falling behind 6-0, Montcalm scored its first points a little over three minutes into the game when Tristen Cline scored on a layup catching fire from there. Donovan Reed followed with a layup and Cline followed with a jumper to knot the game with 3:47 to play in the frame.
“That’s a testament to these guys and their leadership,” Montcalm head coach Adam Havens said. “Tristen’s been steady all year and he’s the only senior out there. He has so much game experience. Being down 6-0, I looked at my assistant coach and was like. ‘Do I need to call a timeout?’ and he said, ‘Just let them play.’ And they steadied themselves. And I think we tied it up
Tug responded with a 7-0 run powered by Ashton Davis, Bryson Elia and Braydun Ferris before Reed converted on a layup to snap the skid.
The dust settled with Tug ahead 17-10 after a quarter but the well ran dry shortly afterwards.
Tug hit on a 10-0 run midway through the second quarter, extending its lead at the break.
Trailing 35-17 at the intermission, the floodgates broke open.
Tug held Montcalm scoreless over the first 4:33 of the second half, leading 48-17 before the Generals registered their first points.
“We changed it up a little bit,” Tug head coach Garland “Rabbit” Thompson said. “We’re a pressing team. We play a lot of diamond but we changed it up and started running and jumping. We tried to speed them up and I thought we did. Defense is our calling card. It’s what got us here and hopefully it’ll get us through this weekend.”
Reed led the Generals with 15 points in the loss while Cline netted 10 in the final game of his career.
Ferris led all scorers with 26 points.
