Southmont girls basketball coach Dan Burkman holds his star point guard DeLorean Mason to a high standard, and so does Mason herself. Not many people, even Burkman and Mason could’ve envisioned what took place Wednesday night inside Mountie gym when the Southmont Mounties opened up their season with against Greencastle. South led from the opening bucket and cruised to a 59-37 win over the Tiger Cubs, but the story of the game was the play of the Mason. After averaging 6.2 steals per game a season ago, Mason showed her defensive prowess right away. She ended the game with a sensational 30 points while adding 15 steals. The 30 points is a career-high for the senior and the 15 steals is what many presume to be a Southmont school record.
Mason had 12 in a game last year and after the game noted how this performance she never saw coming.
“I wanted to come out and set a good tone for my senior season,” Mason said afterwards. “It was nerve-wracking at first but I started to settle in and the team did too. I’m really pumped and excited for this season because we know we can achieve a lot. I never imagined ever getting 15 steals in a game and still felt like I had a rough game shooting and I missed some layups, but it’s still pretty cool that I was still able to put up those numbers.”
Mason scored six of the 10 Mountie points in the opening quarter followed by eight of their 12 in the second. She began the third drilling back to back threes as everything seemed to fall into place. Burkman noted how he continues to push the envelope with his star senior because he knows what she’s capable of doing.
“I expect so much out of her that I push her so much,” the fourth year Mountie coach said. “I was shocked at the end of the game when I was told she had 30 and 15 steals. Clearly she makes a difference on both ends of the floor and we’re super lucky to have a player like her.”
While Mason was the star of the show with her performance, seven other Mounties found the scoring column as Burkman played his entire varsity roster including some of the JV girls got to see action late in the game. Freshman Emily Link got the start and added seven points. Senior Chloe Jenkins added six, senior Olivia Gray five, senior Cheyenne Shaw four, and Kenzie Douglas, Molly Williams, and Claire Kessler all had two each.
Southmont shot 24-57 (42%) from the floor while going 6-12 from the foul line and 4-13 from three.
Greencastle was led in scoring by senior Evie Briones who after early foul trouble found her rhythm in the second half and ended with 16 points. Ali Dobbs added seven with Bailey Brown scoring six. Becca Rady and Madi Plew both scores four while Sarah Simmerman rounded out the scoring with two. GC shot 16-46 (35%) from the floor and 6-19 (32%) from three. Against the Mountie pressure, they turned the ball over 29 times.
“We played a lot of girls tonight just to see what they could give us,” Burkman said. “Overall it was nice to sub and give the girls some breaks when they needed them. It’s even better when we made those changes, we didn’t really lose a lot because of the talent and depth of our bench. Each one of those girls has their own skill set that they bring to our team and depending on the game I feel like I have plenty of tools that we can turn to. It’s nice to have that when you need it.”
The Mounties begin the year at 1-0 while the Tiger Cubs fall to 0-1. Southmont will be right back in action tonight when they hit the road to open Sagamore Conference play with a challenge against Tri-West. Greencastle will have their home opener on Friday when they host Edgewood.
