The Tyler Consolidated Silver Knight basketball team played their last game of the ‘09-‘10 year at New Martinsville last week, in the Sectional semi-finals against the Magnolia Blue Eagles. The Eagles took the win, 67-47. The Silver Knights ended the season with an 8-11 season record.

The Silver Knights of Tyler Consolidated turned around their 0-8 season earlier in the year to wind up with an 8-11 overall record, and would have added to those numbers in the win column, if the Blue Eagles of Magnolia had not ended their post-season progress.

On March 2 in New Martinsville, Magnolia played host to the Knights in the Sectional semi-finals, and eventually took the win, 67-47, to end Consolidated’s season.

Off to a slow start in the contest, the Silver only managed seven points on their side of the scoreboard in the first, while allowing the Eagles to tally 17. By half time, the Knights still had not broke into double digits and trailed by 11 points in the game, 27-16.

The Silver and Black put together a better second half, but it was too-little too-late as the home team took the win and advanced to the Sectional Finals, 67-47.

“We did what we needed to do throughout most of the game,” said head coach of the Silver Knights, J.C. Kimble.

“We were able to stick with them, but our shots just weren’t falling. We just didn’t play like we know how to play.”

Knight senior Alex Jones led all scorers in the game with 19 points. Dustin Snider added 11 points for the Knights, followed by Zach Knowlton with five; Zach Minger, four; Boone Kehrer, four; Aaron Estep, two and Aaron Fuller, two.

For the Blue Eagles, Marc Winters led the scorers with 16 points, followed by Jordan Blatt, 12; and Andy Huggins and Jordan Moore with 10 points apiece.

“Alex Jones stepped up well in this game,” the coach said.

“And Minger and Estep both did a great job on defense. All I can say is I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Five seniors led the Silver Knight team this season and all will be sorely missed, the coach said.

“These guys have given us something we’ve needed,” he said. “They’ve shown us how it feels to win, how to want the win.”

“The seniors on this years team have paved the way for the next few years for the rest of the players. Now, we have experience coming back next year, but it’s mainly due to this years seniors paving the way for any success we see.”