NEW MARKET —The Southmont boys’ basketball team used a strong defensive effort to send their seniors off with a 57-36 win over Fountain Central on Saturday night.
At the end of the third quarter Southmont (6-13) had only surrendered 19 points as they led 39-19. A 17-point fourth quarter by the Mustangs (10-13) was answered by an 18-point quarter from the Mounties as they cruised to a win.
“We just shot the ball about as poorly as we’re going to tonight,” Fountain Central coach Phil Shabi said. “We didn’t hit from the free-throw line when we had our chances, didn’t finish at the rim and guys who are usually reliable shooters couldn’t get one to fall from the outside. When things weren’t going our way offensively that led to us losing our concentration on the defensive end.”
The Mustangs hit 11-of-26 from the free-throw line and 12-of-40 from the field. Colton Robinson led the Mustangs with nine points in the loss.
When the Mustangs were missing their shots, the Mounties dominated the boards with a 44-25 advantage for the game.
Southmont’s Logan Oppy led all scorers with 14 points all of which came in the first half, as he drained four shots from behind the arc to help the Mounties get out to their big lead. He also grabbed eight rebounds in the win. Sophomore Avery Saunders also ended in double figures with 10 points and also grabbed eight rebounds.
“Our goal coming in was to take away their top three guys in and we did a great job of that tonight,” Southmont Coach Jake Turner said. “We wanted to make them play inside the arc and I was really pleased with our defensive performance. We’ve talked about all season to holding teams to one shot and defending at a high level.”
The three seniors for the Mounties — Conner McVay, Drew Glancy, and Reese Long — combined to score 15 points in the win as McVay led the way with seven, Long six and Glancy two.
“This is a game that I want all of my teams to win,” he said. “I can’t speak enough to the character of all three of them. They’re great kids and very coachable and tremendous role models for our younger guys,”
In the final minutes of the game McVay hit a corner three that brought every Mountie fan to their feet as he was able to exit the game on a high note and even brought a smile across Turner’s face.
With two games remaining on their schedule, the first comes Tuesday at Parke Heritage, Turner wants his team to use the momentum from this game as they prepare for the final stretch.
“This win helps support what us as a coaching staff have emphasized to these guys,” Turner said. “We want to be a team that defends at high level and rebounds the basketball and we have to do that if we want to beat good teams.”
The matchup with Parke Heritage (19-3) on Tuesday will begin at 7:30 p.m. The Mounties will then travel to Scecina Memorial on Friday night as they wrap up regular season play.
The Mustangs (10-13) will end their regular season Tuesday night at home vs Clinton Prairie.
Southmont 57, Fountain Central 36
SM 12 19 8 18 – 57
FC 5 8 6 17 – 36
SOUTHMONT (6-13, 2-5 SAC): Drew Glancy 1-2 0-0 2, Reese
Long 2-4 2-4 6, Micah Kohorn 0-0 0-0 0, Carson Chadd 3-5 0-0 7
Cale Hess 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Bowman 2-15 0-4 9, Logan Oppy 5-10
4-8 14, Connor McVay 2-3 1-1 7, Steele Baumgardner 0-0 0-0 0,
Cam King 0-0 0-0 0, Avery Saunders 2-4 0-1 10, Keaton Conkright
0-0 0-0 0, Luke Gregg 1-3 0-0 2; Totals 18-47 7-18 57
FOUNTAIN CENTRAL (10-13, 2-5 WRC): Drew Duncan 0-0 0-0 0,
Andrew Shabi 3-12 1-7 8, Carson Eberly 1-6 0-3 7, Cody Linville
1-3 0-1 2, Colton Robinson 4-6 0-1 9, Justin Butts 0-0 0-0 0, Cole
Kirkpatrick 1-3 0-0 2, Mason Larkin 0-5 0-2 3, Carter Merryman
0-0 0-0 0, Denton Otero 0-0 0-0 0, Ray Duncan 0-0 0-0 0, Jake Smith
2-5 0-0 5
3-Point Shooting: SM 7-18 (Oppy 4, Long 2, McVay), FC 1-14 (Shabi)
Rebounds: SM 44, FC 25
Turnovers: SM 16, FC 12
