Boys Basketball: Seneca bounces Reed-Custer

Seneca put together a surge in the third quarter Wednesday night that allowed its students to chant “Good luck next year’’ to Reed-Custer in the fourth quarter.

Host Seneca outscored Reed-Custer 24-6 in the third period and went on to a 59-34 victory in the semifinals of its Class 2A regional.

“There were a couple of big plays and we got some rebounds and putbacks,’’ guard Jimmy David said of the third quarter. “We fed it to Chris (Lee) a little more than we did the first half, which was nice. I didn’t think they had anyone there who could stop him.’’

David scored eight of his game-high 22 points in the third period, including a four-point play in the final seconds. Lee had six points on layups in the decisive quarter and Peyton Schrag had four points.

“They came out with a lot of fire in the third quarter,’’ Reed-Custer coach Mark Porter said. “We weren’t able to answer that. You’ve got to give them credit. They played extremely well.’’

Conlan Callahan scored 11 points and Lee finished with eight points and 10 rebounds for Seneca (18-11), which faces Herscher (25-1) in Friday’s title game.

“When you make shots, the game looks pretty easy,’’ Seneca coach Russ Witte said. “We’ve got a real good offensive team. We have multiple kids who can score. Our starting five, anybody can have a big day.’’

Reed-Custer led 19-17 at halftime. The score was 20-all early in the second half before Seneca got on a roll.

Tyler Schoonover had eight points and Jacob Benson seven for Reed-Custer (11-18).

“We’re proud of our kids in the fact that I think we improved from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,’’ Porter said. “I thought our kids fought tonight from the very beginning to the very end.’’

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