The 17th annual Boys Sugar Creek Classic got underway at Crawfordsville High School on Friday night. Game one saw a re-match between heated county rivals North Montgomery and Southmont. Back on Dec. 1 the Mounties in their season opener defeated the Chargers 50-42. Round two also went the Mounties way as they defeated the Chargers 48-35 to advance to the championship game on Saturday.
Southmont led 12-7 after the opening quarter and it appeared the two county rivals were in for another competitive battle. Things went downhill in the second for the Chargers however as after an opening made bucket by Kelby Harwood who returned from three-game absence, North wouldn’t score the rest of the quarter as South ended the half scoring the last 11 to take a 23-9 lead. In the second half the closest the Chargers would get the deficit down to was seven points with a1:51 to go, but it South scored the final six points of the game from the foul line to ice the victory.
“It’s no question that we’re still a work in progress,” first-year Mountie coach Michael Byrum said. “It wasn’t pretty at time and it was certainly physical like we expected it to be. We had them on the ropes but let them back in it a little bit in the fourth quarter. We ended up having to fight out way to the end. Sometimes that’s just how it has to be and I’m proud that our guys came out on top.”
The 35 points by the Chargers marks the fourth straight game where they’ve failed to reach 40 points. It wasn’t an issue of getting open looks but they can’t seem to get the ball to fall through the net. For the game the Chargers were just 1-11 from three. Overall they were 15-37 (40.5%) from the floor but just 4-11 (36%) from the foul line.
“South out-competed us the whole night,” Charger coach Chad Arnold said. “Every loose ball they were diving on, they got plenty of offensive rebounds. There’s no ‘want to’ with our guys right now and we’re not executing our gameplan at all. They have a lot of guys who can’t shoot and then we kept losing the guys who could. I just don’t get it.”
The Mounties were led in scoring by Vince Reimondo’s 15 points. Evan Watson added 10 before leaving the game with what appeared to be an ankle injury in the third quarter. Hayden Hess added nine, Aaron McMasters seven, Austin Foley three and Kyler McCandless and Lucas Oppy both scored two. South shot 16-43 (37%) from the field and 5-12 (42%) from three. They made 11-20 (55%) of their foul shots, grabbed 29 rebounds an turned the ball over nine times.
North Montgomery (4-6) were led by Harwood’s 12. Jarrod Kirsch and Ross Dyson both scored seven, Noah Hopkins five, Jack Warren three, and Colten Arnold one.
The Chargers will play Western Boone in the consolation game on Saturday which gets underway at 5 p.m. back at CHS. Southmont (4-3) will play their other county rival in the Crawfordsville Athenians as it’ll be re-match of last year’s Sugar Creek Classic title game that the Mounties won in a low scoring 32-30 affair.
“All we wanted was the opportunity to play for a championship and now that’s right in front of us,” Byrum said. “It doesn’t matter how we got the job done, all that matters is the 32-minute fight we’re now going to have on Saturday.”
Southmont 48, North Montgomery 35
Score By Quarter
SM 12 11 16 9 — 48
NM 7 2 16 10 — 35
North Montgomery (4-6) FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Cam Enlow 0-4 0-0 0, Jarrod Kirsch 3-4 1-4 7, Kelby Harwood 6-17 0-1 7, Ross Dyson 3-4 0-0 7, Jack Warren 1-3 1-2 3, Colten Arnold 0-2 1-2 1, Noah Hopkins 2-3 1-2 5; Totals 15-37 4-11 35
Southmont (4-3): Evan Watson 4-7 0-0 10, Vince Reimondo 4-12 4-4 15, Austin Foley 1-1 1-2 3, Kyler McCandless 1-3 0-0 2, Lucas Oppy 1-3 0-4 2, Hayden Hess 3-11 3-4 9, Cale Chadd 0-0 0-0 0, Aaron McMasters 2-6 3-5 7, Carter Hubble 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 16-43 11-20 48
3-Point Shooting: NM 1-11 (Dyson 1-1, Enlow 0-4, Harwood 0-3, Arnold 0-2, Warren 0-1); SM 5-15 (Reimondo 3-6, Watson 2-3, Hess 0-2, McMasters 0-1)
Rebounds: NM 24 (Hopkins 7, Dyson 5); SM 29 (Reimondo 5, McCandless 5, Oppy 5, Foley 4)
Turnovers: NM 13; SM 9
