DANSVILLE, Mich. (WLNS) – It wasn’t hard finding the top matchup of the night. The leaders in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference went at it, with a perfect record on the line.

8-0 Dansville welcomed in 6-0 Pewamo-Westphalia. This is the first and only, scheduled, meeting between the two teams, and it did not disappoint.

Dansville led after the first quarter, but after a strong second quarter by the Pirates, P-W took a 27-18 lead into halftime.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in. Dansville’s such a scrappy team, they make things so tough and so close,” Pewamo-Westphalia basketball coach, Dominic Schneider said.

In the second half, P-W came out on fire from behind the arc. Cam Cook and Braden Miller hit back-to-back three’s, giving the Pirates a 35-20 lead, forcing Dansville to take a timeout with 4:22 left in the third quarter.

Out of the timeout the Aggies flipped the script and started to gain momentum. Dansville ended the quarter on a 9-2 run, which was capped off by a Peyton Newkirk three at the buzzer to make it a 37-29 game.

Dansville came as close as six in the final quarter, but the Pirates were able to close the door and take home a 46-34 victory.

“I thought we started off slow. I thought we let them dictate the game speed, but as the game went on I thought we settled into their zone,” Schneider said. “Guys did a good job of catching and taking their time seeing what was going on defensively and finding the open man.”

“We came out a little slow. So we’re all kind of upset about that, but you know we got the win so that’s always good,” Pewamo-Westphalia junior guard, Brock Thelen said. “They played us really aggressively and that’s what we need, coming up on the playoffs.”

Thelen led P-W with 11 points, and Blake Smith was right behind with ten points. A balanced-attack by the Pirates saw nine players in the scoring column of the stat book.

“I think that’s going to be our identity for the playoffs and the rest of the regular season,” Schneider said about his teams balanced scoring. “We have five guys, maybe six, that have led us in scoring so far this year in different games. So if they want to take one guy away, we can probably answer with another guy.”

“Whoever is on that night, we just give it to them,” Thelen said. “If someone makes a good play, you get all hyped-up about it and you just kind of know because you know your guys, and you know that look in their eye if their hot, and you’re like ‘Ok I’ll give it to them.'”

Carson Voss and Jalen Nelson led Dansville with 11 points each.