A locker room thick with the voice of Austin Butler went silent for a few seconds. The mousy squeak of a dry-erase marker followed.
Suddenly, exuberance and cheering erupted from Hempfield boys basketball players and coaches as the number seven went up on the board.
“Winning is hard,” said Butler, the team’s first-year coach. “After a game that you worked so hard to win, you have to take a pause to celebrate.”
The subtle acknowledgement of the team’s seventh victory Tuesday followed a 60-47 triumph over Greensburg Salem as the Spartans finished 2-0 at the Greensburg Salem Holiday Classic, a sure tuneup before Section 2-6A play resumes in a week at Canon-McMillan.
It was the final game of the six-team, two-day event.
Hempfield (7-4) trailed only once, at 2-0, and brushed aside a slow-going second quarter with a big third to dispose of the improved Golden Lions (5-6).
Senior guard Danny Husenits scored a game-high 18 points and junior Lucas Simmons added 15 for the Spartans, who scored 21 in the third to build a double-digit lead it never gave back.
The Golden Lions flirted with a comeback, but the momentum they managed to muster was fleeting.
“In the first half, we had a lot of energy, but we were kind of out of control,” Husenits said. “We played better in the second half and got more stops.”
Leading 29-26 coming out of the break — Greensburg Salem cut it to 27-26 on six straight free throws by sophomore point guard Solomon Cain — the Spartans used a 7-2 run to begin to stretch the margin.
Husenits and senior guard Jack Kopas hit 3-pointers, and Simmons scored off an inbounds play to make it 44-34.
The Spartans’ 21-point third was their best offensive quarter, a close second to a 20-point first that included three 3s.
Senior Ty Harkcom’s 3 closed the gap to seven (46-39), but Hempfield reeled off an 11-1 run from there to go ahead 55-40 with five minutes to play in the fourth.
Three blocks in the second half — two by 6-3 senior forward Alex Waitkus and another glass-pinner by Simmons — gave the Spartans defensive command.
They could have padded their advantage, but managed just two field goals in the fourth and shot 6 of 14 from the free-throw line in the final eight minutes.
“Second quarters for us, in all 11 games, have been awful,” Butler said. “The third quarter has been much better. Greensburg Salem did a good job breaking our press. Danny was Danny today, Simmons and (junior guard Luke) Stanley were awesome. We played a lot of our bench guys, too, so that was a positive the last two days.”
Senior Trevor Donsen added nine points and Stanley finished with eight for Hempfield.
Greensburg Salem could only get it to 10 in the fourth, at 57-47, on a 3 by Cain. The hopeful Cain led the Golden Lions with 16 points, including 9 of 10 free throws, while sophomore Jackson Stevey scored 14 and Harkcom had 10.
The Golden Lions made 13 of 14 free throws.
“We could have let them get a basket and sit in a zone,” Husenits said of Greensburg Salem. “But we got rebounds and ran. We’re trying to get better at finishing all four quarters.”