Survive and advance.
The fifth-ranked Union City boys did just that.
Despite an “ugly” performance, according to head coach Shane Sisco, the Golden Tornadoes bought themselves at least three more games — the first in Friday’s semifinals — with a 54-38 win over Trenton Tuesday night in the District 14A Tournament.
Top-seeded UC (20-6) will now face No. 5 South Fulton (17-11) in the first of two semis at 6 p.m. Friday at Trenton High School. The Red Devils, who won on the road at Bradford Monday 72-59 to advance to the regional tournament for the first time since 2005, will be looking to break a 22-game losing streak against the Tornadoes in that Friday game.
Humboldt (20-6), the third seed, plays No. 7 Lake County (5-20) in the nightcap to determine the other finalist for the tourney title tilt that will be played Monday night.
H’boldt eliminated Halls 59-35 Tuesday night, while LC — which saw its seeding suffer after having to forfeit seven games — avenged two regular season losses to Greenfield with a 68-51 victory over the No. 2 Yellowjackets.
The Twisters, who reached the 20-victory mark for the 11th time in Sisco’s 14 seasons at the helm that has included a pair of Class 1A state championships, didn’t get any style points for their triumph over Peabody.
They didn’t need to, according to their coach.
“It’s the time of the year when you pull out all the stops and look past being pretty to win and move on,” Sisco said.
“Defensively, we played well, and that’s not always pretty. There weren’t a lot of possessions in the game. Trenton came in wanting to be deliberate and patient and they were. We were able to speed up the game a time or two, and that, along with our defense, was the key.”
A 22-12 second quarter that broke a 9-all deadlock put UC in front for good.
After Trenton trimmed that deficit to 31-28 with a run of seven straight points to begin the second half, Union City got a big 3-pointer from Marcus DeBerry and a couple of buckets from Jamie Hyde to re-establish control.
The Tornado lead was never smaller than double digits in the fourth quarter.
Hyde and DeBerry made a three treys apiece as UC hit 6-of-14 from beyond the arc.
Donte Simpson led the victors with 18 points, with Deberry chipping in with 15 and Hyde scoring 14.
UC had beaten Peabody by 26 and 27 points in the regular season.
Trenton ends its season with an 8-19 mark.

Published in The Messenger 2.13.13