LINDEN — Southmont’s girls basketball team got the new year started well with a come-from-behind, 34-27 win over North Montgomery.
The win avenges a loss to the Chargers in the Sugar Creek Classic, and moves the Mounties to 5-9 on the season and 2-1 in the Sagamore Conference. The Chargers fall to 12-4 and 2-2 in the league.
Trailing by 10 points late in the second quarter, the visitors changed the game with pressure defense and taking care of the ball in the second half.
“We started the game in a zone defense, and after a quarter or so, I knew this was not working,” South coach Dan Burkman said. “We are much better up-tempo. The pressure we put on their ball handlers was the difference. Our defense won the game.”
That defense forced 17 turnovers in the second half, which turned into a dozen points. The Chargers were held without a field goal in the third quarter and only two for the half. The eight-point halftime deficit was erased in the third quarter, the Mounties took the lead with the first field goal of the fourth, and never trailed again.
“It turned into an ugly game,” North coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “Our inability to handle the ball made it hard to run any offense, made it hard to set screens and to shoot. I thought our defense played fairly well tonight, but South got so many points off our turnovers, and so many of our turnovers were unforced, where we just mis-handled the ball. It’s something we have to fix, because we will sure see this pressure down the road again.”
The Mounties had their two leading scorers lead them again.
Ella Berry had a dozen points, while Layla Gomez added a double-double with 11 counters and 10 rebounds. Gomez also had four blocks, three steals and two assists.
“She (Gomez) is a finesse player, even with her size,” Burkman said of the sophomore. “She is a difference-maker.”
For the game, South was 13-of-45 from the field hit one three-point shot, and had a 7-of-15 night from the line, although they did seal the win with six made charity tosses in the final quarter. They had only two turnovers in the entire second half after 13 in the first.
The Chargers were led in scoring by Piper Ramey with her own double-double of 10 points and 10 boards. The senior picked up her fourth foul late in the third quarter and missed about six minutes, which coincided with a 7-0 Southmont run.
Lily Graham came off the bench to score eight points. North was 10-of-34 from the field, 3-of-14 from deep and 4-of-12 from the line. They did win the rebound battle 37-35, but lost the turnover war with 28.
“Piper out with four fouls hurt us,” Nuppnau said. “We have to learn how to work without her — that’s on me. Moving forward, we just have to put this game behind us quickly. If we fix one thing, a lot of this will come together. We have a lot of goals still in front of us. That one thing is fixing our confidence, and that is on the girls.”
The Mounties now hold the chance to win the county title with a win later this season over Crawfordsville.
“This team has good basketball instincts,” Burkman said of his squad, comprised of nearly all freshmen and sophomores. “They have natural abilities and understand the game. We were a little rusty early, since we hadn’t played in a couple weeks, but this is a tough group of freshmen and sophomores.”
North is home to Greencastle next Tuesday, while South is at Riverton Parke Saturday.
