DANVILLE — A tough night taking care of the ball turned into a 54-35 Southmont girls basketball loss in Sagamore Conference action to Danville.
A total of 31 Mounties turnovers became 27 Warriors points as South drops its third in a row and falls to 10-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
Danville moves to 8-9 overall and 5-1 in the league.
“Teams are scouting us,” South coach Daniel Burkman said. “They are forcing us to take the ball left and tonight, we never got into our offense because of the turnovers. We stood and watched the ball. Even if we don’t have a true point guard, we have to take care of the ball collectively. We have work to do.”
The Warriors put pressure on the guards outside, but then sagged back in when the Mounties tried to go inside, and they picked off a lot of errant passes.
“We just couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Burkman noted. “Ad-libbing on offense is not what we want to do.”
The Mounties had a lead through parts of the first quarter, and trailed by only one at the end of it, but there was nothing in the bucket from then on, as a two-point second quarter was followed by a four-point third, and the Warriors had the score doubled up.
“Last year the girls said we couldn’t handle the press,” Burkman said, “and we worked hard on that, busting the zone press. Now we are seeing the man press, with some run and jump, and we now have to work on that part. It’s a learning curve — we have to learn to play through adversity, especially since we are closing in on the end of the season. Sectional opponents are going to be seeing the same things.”
Sidney Veatch led South with another double-double. The senior scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Addie Charles dropped four treys for her dozen points.
Natalie Manion added seven points and eight boards. South was 15-of-43 from the floor and 1-of-5 from the line.
Danville was led by Isabelle Wooten’s 12 points, followed by Haley Ancelet and Maddie Patterson with 11 each. Godwin and Wooten each had eight rebounds as the home team won the rebound battle 44-38. The Warriors had 16 turnovers.
“Our focus the next two days of practice is to get the ball out into transition and breaking that man press,” Burkman said. “Then we can get into our half-court offense. These last three games teams have shined a light on our weaknesses, and we need to address them.”
The Mounties are home Thursday against Frankfort in another conference matchup. Danville, who won the jv game also, is at Cascade Wednesday.
