SHERIDAN — The goal for every girls basketball team is to be playing their best basketball at this point in the season with sectional play beginning next week. For the Southmont Lady Mounties, they seem to be doing just that as Wednesday night they hit the road for their second game of a back-to-back against a Sheridan Blackhawks team who had a 12-4 record on the season. The Mounties continued to play a great style of basketball using a balanced scoring effort to hand the Blackhawks just their fifth loss of the season with a 58-52 win which was the third straight for the Mounties.
“Really against Covington on Tuesday I really started to see enthusiasm, excitement, and just overall great attitudes, and it carried over into Sheridan,” Southmont coach Dan Burkman said. “That’s where we need to be right now and we played arguably our best game of the year. We’re finally starting to pick up right where we left off before we got shutdown and I like the direction that we’re heading in.”
The Mounties overcame an early 10-5 deficit after the opening quarter and responded with 22 point quarter to even the score at 27-27 at the half. The offense for the Mounties continued into the second half where they’d outscore the Blackhawks 31-25.
Balanced scoring for Southmont once again helped in the win. Eight different Mounties scored led by DeLorean Mason’s 14. Chelsea Veatch and Belle Miller both scored 11 while Hanna Nichols and Dori Frederick both had seven. Chloe Jenkins added in five, Cheyenne Shaw two, and Olivia Gray one. Burkman is never afraid to use the depth of his bench and against the Blackhawks, they were able to answer the call.
“I thought tonight was a great example of how deep we are as team,” he said. “Chelsea, Hanna, and DeLo were the three that stood out to me tonight. We need Chelsea to continue that path she’s on and Hanna does so many things that don’t get noticed by a lot of people. Lastly I thought DeLo went up another level tonight and it was really a breakout game for her.”
Southmont improves to 9-10 on the season with the win and will conclude the regular season on Friday against Sagamore Conference foe Lebanon. The Mounties with a win would head into the sectional with a .500 record and winners of four straight. Burkman knows it’ll be another challenge but the momentum his team is carrying could possibly give the Mounties the edge.
“I think we’re playing our best basketball of the year right now,” he said. “If we can carry that into Friday night and into the sectional next week, that would bode very well for us.”
The Mounties and Tigers will tip off at 6 p.m. in game one of a girl/boy double-header against the Tigers. You can catch both the girls and boys game on True Country 106.3 WCDQ with Billy R and Codey Emerson.
