VEEDERSBURG — Southmont and Fountain Central girls basketball have been the best two teams in the area this season and Monday the two teams squared off in Veedersburg at Dave Sanders Court. The Mustangs came in riding a seven-game winning streak along with their 11-2 record while South was looking to get back on track after competing last Friday vs SAC rival Danville. The first half proved to be as advertised between the two good teams with just a single point separating them as South took a 23-22 lead into the locker room. Then in the third quarter, South turned up the pressure defensively and built a 13 point lead at the beginning of the fourth and would hold off a late Mustang rally to win 52-45.
Fountain Central (11-3) was held without a field goal in the third quarter with all five of their points coming from the foul line. The closest the Mustangs got after trailing by 13 was five points in the games final seconds when Brailey Hoagland made a three to make it 50-45. They trailed by six multiple times down the stretch but weren’t able to complete the comeback.
“At halftime we talked about how slow the game felt and the girls felt like we were playing at Fountain Central’s pace,” Southmont coach Dan Burkman said. “We started to extend our zone to almost half court to begin the third and then the game really started to pick up and we started playing at the pace that we wanted. They (Fountain Central) hit some free-throws to stay in it late but I was happy with the adjustments we made coming out of halftime.”
Both teams shot the ball extremely well from the foul line in the game. Southmont (7-5) along with going 18-41 (44%) from the field shot 14-18 (77.8%) from the charity stripe. They were 2-7 from the three point line and also crashed the glass really well to the tune of 38 total rebounds. They did end the game with 26 turnovers.
Mason did her usual job in being the catalyst for the Mountie offense as the senior led all scorers with 22 points in the win. Seven other Mounties found the scoring column with Chloe Jenkins scoring eight, Layla Gomez and Emily Link finishing with six, Cheyenne Shaw five, Claire Kessler and Olivia Gray two and Molly Williams one.
“It was nice to see all of our hard work at the free-throw line pay off tonight when we needed it to,” Burkman added. “If we would have shot our season average then it might have been a different game. Offensive rebounding has also been a focus for us because we know with Chloe, Layla and Cheyenne all down there we should dominate the boards, it’s just a matter of going after them.”
The Mustangs had a rough time shooting in the loss going just 10-40 (25%) from the floor. They were 5-18 (27.8%) from three. As previously mentioned, FC was stellar from the foul line going 20-24 (83%) to stay in the game. They grabbed 25 rebounds and turned it over 21 times. Freshman Henley Good led FC with 13 points in the loss with Hannah Prickett scoring 12. Brailey Hoagland scored eight, both Kacey Kirkpatrick and Rylee Simko added five with Bella Bacon ending with two.
Mustang coach Sam Karr noted how he felt his team was well prepared coming into the game, but didn’t execute what they practiced.
“We really didn’t do anything that we practiced and that was disappointing,” he said. “We knew they like to run back door cuts and tonight I really felt like our mental toughness wasn’t there. We’ve been winning close games and I thought coming in they couldn’t guard us enough. We got the ball where we wanted it in the middle of that zone but for some reason just didn’t shoot it and were hesitant. They didn’t come out to guard it and my guess is it made them second guess what they wanted to do with it.”
Both have quick turnarounds as they’ll both be in action on Tuesday. Southmont will hit the road again to take on another talented team in Bethesda Christian (7-1). The Mustangs will be back at home with a game against Indiana School for the Deaf.
“Bethesda I think is very similar to Fountain Central and we’re going to have our work cut out for us,” Burkman said of the quick turnaround. “Hopefully our girls got some rest and are able to repeat tonight’s performance.”
