NEW MARKET — Playing for the first time since Nov. 30, Southmont girls’ basketball looked like a team trying to find its legs.
But strong play from a pair of seniors led the Mounties past Riverton Parke 52-40 on Tuesday night.
Senior Dori Frederick led all scorers with 17 points, while Belle Miller chipped in 10 and helped erase a 21-10 disadvantage on the boards in the first half with a 23-14 advantage over the final 16 minutes. Sophomore DeLorean Mason added 11 points, including seven in the second half.
Southmont turned a 22-14 halftime lead into a 36-18 advantage after three quarters, including a 10-0 run over the final 4:31 of the third period.
“I thought the second half, and especially the third quarter, our energy and effort level just really went up,” Southmont coach Dan Burkman said. “And probably something from my perspective something we’ve been working on really hard is free throw shooting, and I think we did a great job tonight at the free throw line compared to what we had been doing this season.”
Through its first nine games, Southmont (5-5) had shot 52% from the free throw line, but connected on 18-of-25 (72%) charity tosses in the win over the Panthers (3-11) on Tuesday.
After 34 days off, shooting proved to be the biggest hurdle for the Mounties. Outside of Frederick’s 3-of-6 effort in the first half, Southmont was just 4-of-13 in the first half from the field that also included a 2-of-2 mark from Chelsea Veatch.
“Honestly it was the shooting,” Burkman said of the expected struggles. “Dori got hot a little bit from the outside, but we couldn’t get anything going on in the inside. We were executing, just not finishing.”
Bailey Duke led Riverton Parke with 14 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter on a perfect 5-of-5 effort from the field.
The Mounties were 2-of-10 on 3-point shots in the win, while the Panthers were 3-of-15. Southmont had 28 turnovers and Riverton Parke 25.
Southmont will carry its 5-5 record into Thursday’s home county matchup against North Montgomery (10-6) with bragging rights and a county title on the line.
“For us, we’ve practice so much. So just getting that first game out of the way is big, especially going into Thursday,” Burkman said. “Hopefully we knocked some rust loose, get some confidence and get the ball rolling again.
