With all eyes on Kelton McEwen, Nathan Scearce steers Bartlett past Larkin. And that’s a good thing. ‘He’s back.’

A big indicator of how much junior guard Nathan Scearce’s game has evolved can be traced to him taking over for Bartlett when the opposition focuses defensively on Kelton McEwen.

If McEwen draws the extra attention, somebody else has to step up and make plays for the Hawks. As the season has gone on, that player consistently has been Scearce.

Friday night’s Upstate Eight Conference game at Larkin was no different.

“Kelton is usually the playmaker, but I had to step up because he was getting face-guarded,” Scearce said. “He gets face-guarded every game. We just try to share the ball.”

The Hawks trailed by four at halftime, but Scearce brought them back. He hit a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter, giving Bartlett a one-point lead in an eventual 55-53 win.

Helping the Hawks (18-11, 11-6) hold on was Scearce, who finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists. McEwen was held to six points.

“He made a lot of great plays,” Larkin coach Deryn Carter said of Scearce. “We knew he was a great player. McEwen, we thought, was a little bit bigger piece but a different type of player.

“(Scearce) did a heck of a job. If he wasn’t scoring it, he was rebounding it. If he wasn’t rebounding or scoring it, he was passing it. He dominated the game.”

McEwen, meanwhile, was just fine with Scearce taking the reins.

“When things like that happen, I’m confident he can do his thing,” McEwen said. “Then when he’s getting guarded, I can do my thing. It’s kind of like a mutual trust there.

“He did a really good job taking his guy off the dribble. Then when they doubled, he found the open guy.”

Early in the season, Scearce may have not been as decisive as he was Friday. That’s a sign of his growth as a player, according to Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith.

“Nate is such a hard guard in the open court,” Wolfsmith said. “He’s strong enough to take you down low and bully you. He’s quick enough to get by you, and he can pull up and hit the three.

“His game has developed and his confidence is really growing since the injury early in the year. He’s back to being Nate again.”

Jakob Blakley was the star early on for Larkin (14-15, 11-6). He scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the first half as the Royals led by nine in the second quarter.

“Blakley tore us up in the first half,” Wolfsmith said. “I thought we did a much better job defensively on him as a team in the second half.”

Larkin led the majority of the first three quarters, taking a 42-40 lead into the fourth.

However, Scearce hit a 3-pointer and a free throw and then found McEwen for another three. Suddenly, Bartlett had a 49-42 lead, holding on at the end despite missing free throws.

Larkin still had a chance to win, though. Blakley hit two free throws with 18 seconds left and Bartlett missed the front end of bonus situations two times in the final seconds.

Potential tying shots from Blakley and Armani Ivy also went awry.

“I think it was an off night shooting,” Carter said. “It was a little bit of shot selection — settling for shots when we could have taken it to the basket a little bit more.”

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for Bartlett, which had a 4-8 record in its last 12 games.

“This is a big win for us,” Scearce said. “The four teams we beat weren’t very good, so this is a big win, giving us momentum going into the playoffs.”

Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.