FRANKFORT – Southmont’s girls ran into a pair of hot seniors at Frankfort who made their Senior night special in a 44-37 Hot Dogs win.
It was the first Sagamore Conference victory for Frankfort, as they move to 3-17 overall, while the Mounties were not able to get their own first conference win, and fall to 6-10 for the season and 0-5 in the league.
Jordan Frazier and Payton Dubree combined for 36 points to lead their squad to their first home win of the season on the last home game of the season.
Frazier had 20 for the game, and 16 came in the first half as she sliced and diced inside and then dropped three three-pointers.
Dubree just kept making baskets, as she had points in every quarter to finish with 16.
A third senior, Carina Alanis, had two free throws as the seniors finished with 38 of the 44 points.
“Frankfort deserved to win,” South coach Dan Burkman said.”Those seniors can send us a thank-you if they want, but Frankfort just shot well from the start, and the they just out-played us, out-hustled us and just wanted the game more than we did.”
Turnovers were again a nemesis for the Mounties, as 28 miscues turned into 25 points for the Hot Dogs. An early South lead was erased with a 13-0 run, and South played catch up the rest of the night.
They did tie the game at 27 in the middle of the third quarter, but turnovers and cold shooting allowed the Hot Dogs to regain the lead and keep it.
“This team has been fighting all year,” Frankfort coach Matt Britt said. “This win is really nice for the seniors. Southmont is a tough team to prepare for and I thought we did a good job passing and getting after their zone defense. I also thought we did a good job of making it hard to guard us with Frazier and Dubree going inside some. Getting all those points off their turnovers was great for us.”
The Mounties were led in scoring by Dori Frederick’s 15 points. The senior dropped five three-pointers.
DeLorean Mason and Belle Miller each had eight. For the night, South was 15-of-41 from the field, 6-of-16 from deep but only 1-of-5 from the line.
Frankfort finished 16-of-42 from the field, 3-of-5 from deep and 9-of-19 from the line. They won the rebound battle 35-31. Dubree, Saira Flores and Vannessa Guardado each had six boards. Guardado had the other six points.
South was led by Chelsea Veatch with seven boards. Mason had six.
“We were mentally unprepared,” Burkman noted. “We had no urgency. I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in a game effort. We played hard against WeBo (a Monday loss) but tonight we weren’t focused, mentally prepared and lacked energy. This is a game we should have won.”
The Mounties are back in action Saturday when they host Crawfordsville.
“We have had a lot of games canceled so we are playing a lot now with little practice,” Burkman said. “We have to get down to business tomorrow at practice and focus on Crawfordsville. There is work to do on the mental aspect of our game and we have the sectionals just down the road.”
The game with the Athenians will be part of a girl/boy doubleheader.
