By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
WHITE PIGEON — An early flurry of points and a big game from Matt Swanwick helped the Centreville boys’ basketball team sweep their regular season matchups against White Pigeon with a 63-48 win Friday night in White Pigeon.
The win was keyed by a 13-0 run in the first quarter from the Bulldogs, which came after White Pigeon got out to a 6-5 lead midway through the quarter. Centreville’s Kobe Carpenter keyed the run with seven of those 13 points, while Swanwick had two key buckets in the run. Meanwhile, White Pigeon missed plenty of shots in the first quarter, mostly from beyond the arc, ending the run with just eight seconds left in the quarter on a bucket by Brody Block to make it 18-8 Bulldogs at the end of the first.
“It looked like we needed to get our wind underneath us a little bit. I think they were needing to catch their breath a bit,” Centreville head coach Matt Price said about his team’s run in the quarter. “Once they got that second wind, we were able to get back into the things we normally do defensively, and so I think it was just simply getting their feet underneath them. I think even White Pigeon, it took them a bit to get going.”
In the second quarter, Centreville would keep their opponents at arm’s length, trading points for the majority of the quarter. Swanwick would have 10 of his game-high 32 points in this quarter, getting points underneath the bucket and even mid-range, hitting a couple of jumpers late in the quarter. Ben Truckenmiller had a three-pointer in the quarter and Gavin Palmer added a layup of his own. Meanwhile, White Pigeon got buckets from Ty Strawser, Mehi Singleton, Block, and Josh Davidson, as well as a three-pointer from Strawser, as part of its 15-point quarter. Centreville would hold a 33-23 lead going into the break.
In the second half, both teams would again trade buckets early on with Carpenter and Swanwick getting quick buckets to start, followed by a layups from Jordan Pisco. A Swanwick three-pointer and two free throws by Carpenter would up the lead to 42-27, and after a Singleton drive and layup, Carpenter hit a three-pointer and Truckenmiller hit a layup to extend the lead to 47-29, Centreville’s biggest lead of the night. White Pigeon would attempt to come back a bit at the end of the quarter, with a three-pointer from Strawser and a jumper from Pisco, but Centreville held onto a 47-34 lead at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth, White Pigeon kept trying to get the margin back to a reasonable amount. Strawser started the quarter with a three-pointer to get the deficit back down to 10, but a Swanwick layup put the Bulldogs back up by 10. Davidson then hit a bucket, but missed the free throw on a foul, to make it 49-39, and after a Garrison Bunning bucket, Davidson hit a three-pointer to make the deficit single digits for the Chiefs, 51-42.
However, that would be as close as White Pigeon would come, as Swanwick and Ethan Miller made back-to-back buckets to bring it back to a 13-point lead, and while Davidscon scored six more points in the quarter, it would not be enough as Centreville put it out of reach late with clutch buckets by Swanwick.
“[Swanwick] came through, especially in the fourth quarter. Those shots were big, just holding them off. Every time they’d make a run, just holding them off,” Price said. “I love the composure of not only Matt, but our team is loaded with seniors. They’ve been here before and had a lot of composure.”
Swanwick had 16 rebounds on the day to go along with his 32 points to lea d the way for Centreville, while Carpenter had 14 points, Truckenmiller had seven, and Miller had six. The team also took care of the basketball well, with only two turnovers on the game and 18 assists.
“It always feels good to sweep, and this is such a great rivalry. Both of our schools do everything the right way,” Price said. “It’s just good old-fashioned basketball.”
White Pigeon was led on the day by Strawser and Davidson, who each had 13 points, with Strawser adding five rebounds and Davidson getting five assists. Pisco added eight points and 11 rebounds, Singleton had six points, Block had five points, and Wes Roberts had three points.
“We did not shoot well tonight. I wasn’t disappointed at all in our defensive effort; I thought we played hard, and although I thought we got good shots, we even missed the close ones tonight. The ball didn’t fall in the basket for us,” White Pigeon coach Shawn Strawser said. “For as bad as we shot, we hung around and kept it around 10, and I thought we played hard and the effort was great. That’s just how it goes sometimes.”
With the win, Centreville improves their record to 10-1 and 9-0 in the Southwest 10 ahead of a big home game Monday night against Hartford (10-1, 8-0 in SW10). White Pigeon’s loss drops their record to 7-4 and 5-3 in the SW10.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
