NEW MARKET — Coming into Friday night, the Southmont boys basketball team hadn’t been able to overcome their struggles in the fourth quarter. In all three of their previous Sagamore Conference losses (Crawfordsville, Danville, and Tri-West), the Mounties had competed for three quarters, but couldn’t get over that 4th quarter hump.
That issue reared its head again on Friday as the Mounties fell to the Frankfort Hotdogs 68-57.
Coming into the final quarter Southmont trailed by just one point at 46-45. However a 3-point shot by Frankfort’s Deacon Spencer gave the Hotdogs a 56-50 lead and the Mounties were never able to recover.
This was a week where Southmont didn’t get much practice in due to the weather and Coach Jake Turner expressed his concerns about that after the game.
“I was worried coming in,” Turner said. “I knew our shooting probably wouldn’t be great tonight because of the layoff and you could see we weren’t as crisp as we normally are tonight. Despite that this has been the same story all season where we go into the fourth against a conference opponent and they just outplay us. We need to do a better job of understanding the importance of each possession, especially defensively. We turned it over in spurts tonight at crucial points in the fourth so we just have to do a better job of being strong with the ball in our hands.”
Junior Riley Goodnight came into the matchup against the Mounties (10-7 3-4 SAC) leading the Hotdogs (8-9, 2-4 SAC) in scoring with 16 points per game. Goodnight picked up two fouls in the first quarter which didn’t allow him to play much in the first half. However he made his impact felt by scoring 14 of the 18 Hotdog points in the third and ended the game 22 points to lead all scorers.
“We’ve let the opposing teams best player hurt us for the most part all season,” Turner said. “He was at the top of our scouting report. We knew we wanted to guard the three against him, but we didn’t do a good job of staying in front on the perimeter and that put us in scramble mode on defense. In that scramble we just lost where he was and he stepped up and knocked down the shots.”
Carson Chadd led the Mounties with 16 points while Avery Saunders joined him in doubled figures by adding in 15. Turner knows the talent that his team has, unfortunately they haven’t been able to play to their full potential yet this season, something that he (Turner) knows has to change as Southmont enters the final week of the regular season.
“I think we have tough kids on this team,” he said. “I know they want to win, but we have to understand to just move on from if we make a mistake or even if we make a great play. All that matters is the next play. In these final two games I’d like to see our defense get better and clean up our turnovers. Another big thing is when the momentum starts to turn for our opponents, I want our kids to be out there and pick each other up and we’re just not seeing that right now. Someone needs to take on that leadership role.”
The Mounties have a tough matchup on Tuesday as sectional favorite Parke Heritage will make a trip to New Market. Southmont then ends its regular season next Friday as they host Indianapolis Scecina.
