Frontier League boys basketball: Watertown, Beaver River capture division titles

For starters, Watertown cruised past rival Carthage, 55-42 to claim the “A” Division playoff championship.

In the nightcap, Beaver River rolled to a 62-46 triumph over Sandy Creek to secure the “C” Division title.

WATERTOWN 55, CARTHAGE 42

Seth Charlton and Parker Moffett each scored 15 points to spark the top-seeded Cyclones past the second-seeded Comets.

“It was really tough, but I’m excited,” Charlton said. “Carthage is a tough team and we knew it was going to be a battle. But we won back-to-back (titles), so it feels great.”

Patrick Duah and Jack Adams each contributed 10 points for regular-season champion Watertown (10-9).

Moffett, a junior, finished with a double-double, recording 14 rebounds.

“It feels great, especially doing it two years in a row,” Duah said. “Being a senior, this is probably my last time playing around here, so it feels awesome.”

“I’m going to give all the credit in the world to Carthage,” Watertown coach Ed Adams said. “Carthage plays hard, we played them the first time there and they beat us by 20. The second time at home we beat them by 18, but I knew this game being the rubber match was going to be a tough night. I have so much respect for Carthage, they’re always a tough opponent.”

Watertown also effectively shut down the Comets for most of the night as their dynamic leading scorer Trenton Walker was held to 14 points.

“I think the defense we did on (Walker) was pretty good, it was definitely the same game plan and we executed it well,” Duah said.

“So what we’ve learned this year is we’re not a great pressing team, so we do a lot of half-court stuff,” Ed Adams said, “And we decided to do a diamond-and-one (defense) on Trenton, he’s the best player in the league, obviously, and we have a lot of respect for him. So we wanted to try and make it as hard as possible to get him the ball and overall I think we did well.”

Watertown broke the game open early by outscoring Carthage, 20-8 in the second quarter. This surge included a 13-3 run to open the period to build a 16-point lead.

The Comets were limited to one basket, an early 3-pointer by Walker for nearly a six-minute stretch.

The Cyclones then led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter and pulled away in the final period.

“They did a great job,” Carthage coach Jeff Ventiquattro said of Watertown. “They have some really tough kids defensively and they make (Walker) work for everything we have and teams have done that throughout the year on and off. They made it really tough for us.”

Watertown also made 18 of 26 free-throw attempts for the game, including making 13-for-14 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.

Charlton was perfect from the line making all seven foul-shot attempts for the game, including draining all six in the fourth.

“You just never know what’s going to happen in a game like this, we came out and really put it to them in the first half,” Ed Adams said. “In the second half, they matched it, they made it a game, they made it very interesting. I’m just glad we were able to make foul shots down the stretch and put it away.”

Ashton Norton chipped in 11 points for Carthage (10-10), who split the two-game regular-season series with Watertown.

“I thought the kids battled back, which was nice to see,” Ventiquattro said. “There are some things defensively that we did that I think we can build on. But offensively we have to get to a point where we’re more confident with the ball when (Walker) doesn’t have the ball.”

The Cyclones, who defeated the Comets in last year’s division final, have now won the past three playoff championships.

BEAVER RIVER 62, SANDY CREEK 46

The guard duo of Lucas Roes and Kade Schneider each scored 19 points to propel the top-seeded Beavers past the third-seeded Comets to secure the “C” Division crown.

Beaver River (14-6) successfully defended its title after winning the championship last year by knocking off top-seeded South Lewis.

“I think last year’s experience from playing here and returning most of our team definitely helped out,” Beaver River coach Zac Lehman said. “We just kind of controlled the tempo, played hard, played through this season and played our basketball this year. It was just a good night for us, for sure.”

“It feels great, to win back-to-back years,” Roes said. “Last year we were the underdog, this year we knew they (Sandy Creek) were going to come out at us, but we were ready.”

This time, the Beavers raced out to an 16-11 lead over the Comets through the first quarter.

Beaver River orchestrated an 11-0 run that carried over into the second quarter and eventually expanded this into a 17-6 surge to lead by 16 points at 35-19 heading into halftime.

Roes scored 14 of his points in the first half, including 10 in the second quarter, to lead the way for the Beavers. Roes also hauled in a team-leading nine rebounds.

“We knew they were going to go man to man and just switch up their defense,” Schneider said of Sandy Creek. “We knew they were quick enough to stay in front of us, so we just drove by them and crashed the boards. We’re a smaller team, so we try to get out fast.”

A patient defensive effort by Beaver River held the Comets scoreless for nearly seven minutes in the first half.

“It’s good, we put a lot of work into getting here and getting this done, so it feels good to accomplish this again,” Schneider said. “And we played good defense as well.”

Beaver River led by as many as 23 points in the third quarter to pull away and build a 51-31 advantage heading into the final quarter.

Schneider contributed 11 of his points in the second half to help put the game away.

“We did really well tonight, Lucas is a senior, so we’ll miss him,” Lehman said. “But really our starting five is very solid all the way through. Lucas and Kade lead us in scoring, but we’ve got a lot of guys getting in on rebounding, they share the ball well. We crash the net, play great defense, so really that five is a good core, but Lucas and Kade definitely both weapons offensively. It’s nice to have them for sure.”

Hudson Hunt scored 18 points and Mason Ennist chipped in 17 points for Sandy Creek (11-9).

Sandy Creek, which defeated South Lewis in the division semifinals, competed in its first league final in boys basketball since 2015, when it defeated Beaver River.

“We’re definitely a defensive-minded team first, we try to crank up the intensity,” Lehman said. “But Sandy Creek did a great job, their kids really drive hard to the basket and it’s hard to stay in front of them.”