The Western scholastic men’s basketball team fell 72-61 to Central in the second round of pool play Friday night and will be in a must-win situation Saturday to get into the medal round.

Despite a confident start that saw Western up for virtually the entire first half, the team was plagued by turnovers and poor shot selection, and unlike their first game, their size was not there to save them.

“I was really disappointed with our rebounding,” head coach Larry Jones said. “It was tough to get the ball inside, we had some poor shot selection, but we simply didn’t rebound well enough.”

Unlike their first game, though, Western was hitting their mid-range and outside shots throughout the first half to carry them. Trevor Sanders and Christian White carried the load in the first half, combining for 19 of the team’s 34 points. It was White early, scoring seven of the team’s first 10 points.

Sanders, who barely played in the opener, hit a pair of three’s and a long two and was on the floor for the majority of the half

“He’s a great shooter,” Jones said. “He can be streaky, but he some big shots for us early.”

Trailing by just one at halftime, things fell apart early as the teams came back from the break.

Central opened the half with an 11-2 run, sparked by Zack Coleman, who finished with a game-high 17 points.

But, Western scrapped back into the game, cutting a 10-point deficit in half with back-to-back buckets from Andrew Hoy and a three-pointer from Alexander Tanea.

Josiah Heath cut it to three at 48-45 later, but again the offense went flat, and Central moved the lead back to seven with 12 minutes left.

Momentum seemed to be shifting after Hoy hit a pair of free throws and Tanea hit a jumper to get it back to three at the halfway point, but that’s as close as Western would come.

“Sanders and Tanea both shot well, but we couldn’t really get into a rhythm,” Jones said.

Next up for Western scholastic team is Hudson Valley, led by P.J. Torres, who has scored a tourney-high 54 points, including a 44-point barrage against New York City.

Hudson Valley and Central are the only undefeated teams left, so if Western can beat Hudson Valley, barring a Central loss (tiebreaking scenarios) Western will be in the gold medal game.