A three game opening week of the season concluded on Saturday afternoon for Southmont girls basketball. The Mounites welcome the Clinton Central Bulldogs to New Market and the first half of the game was all Bulldogs. Clinton Central out-scored Southmont 23-2 in the opening quarter and led 30-8 at halftime. But then the script flipped and the Mounties woke up. A DeLorean Mason made three made the game 45-41 with little over a minute remaining. The comeback would come up just short four South as the Bulldogs hung on for a 47-42 win.
“We’ve started our last two game real slow for whatever reason,” Southmont coach Dan Burkman said. “I told them at the end of the Tri-West game and at halftime today that I’m going to find five girls that want to be out there and play hard. We looked like we were in slow motion in that first half and we didn’t care. We have a lot of girls on this team who can play and the competition for playing time is there and the girls know it. Chloe (Jenkins) responded well and had a big second half. Sometimes it takes sitting some of your better girls to get a spark going and that’s what happened today.”
The Mounties cut the Bulldog lead to 36-21 heading into the final quarter. A 7-0 run got the score in the fourth to 41-32. Then after a Bulldog made jumper by Sara Parkinson, Southmont (1-2) rallied off another six straight.
Mason led the Mounties in scoring with 12 in the loss. Jenkins added in 11. What plagured the Mounties throughout the game was their free-throw shooting where they went 8-20 (40%) for the game. Clinton Central on the other hand took advantage of their chances and went 16-24 (67%) from the charity stripe. For the game South shot 16-40 (40%) from the field but just 2-6 (33%) from three. They grabbed 24 reoubnds and turned the ball over 22 times.
Clinton Central (2-0) was led in scoring by Sara Parkinson’s 13 points. Erika Robbins added in 11 with Carly Davison scoring 10. As a team the Bulldogs shot 14-36 (39%) from the floor and 3-10 (30%) from three. They grabbed 19 rebounds and turned it over 18 times.
The Mounties will be back at home against North Vermillion (1-0) on Tuesday before having a lengthy break before being back in action for the Sugar Creek Classic on Nov. 17. Southmont was in this same position a year ago with losses to Tri-West and Clinton Central. They ended up dropping last year’s game to the Falcons and Burkman wants that to not happen again this time around.
“I was proud of the girls for how they played for about two and a half quarters,” Burkman said the comeback attempt. “We have to get the win on Tuesday and I have no doubt that we can. We’re the team that everyone saw the last two quarters today. We have to come out on Tuesday and get off to a much better start and play the way we know how.”
Score By Quarter
CC 23 7 6 11 — 47
SM 2 6 13 21 — 42
Clinton Central (2-0) FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Carly Davison 2-4 6-9 10, Landree Whiteman 1-2 2-2 4, Erika Robbins 3-9 2-2 11, Riley Dellinger 0-0 2-2 2, Kortney Surber 1-4 1-2 3, Abby Harris 0-1 0-0, Emily Long 2-5 0-4 4, Sara Parkinson 5-11 3-3 13; Totals 14-36 16-24 47
Clinton Central 47, Southmotn 42
Southmont (1-2): Molly Williams 0-0 2-6 2, Kenzie Douglas 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Gray 0-0-0-0 0, Emily Link 2-4 1-4 5, Cheyenne Shaw 3-3 0-0 6, DeLorean Mason 4-15 2-2 12, McKinzie Wood 0-2 2-4 2, Chloe Jenkins 5-7 1-4 11, Layla Gomez 2-8 0-0 4; Totals 16-40 8-20 42
3-Point Shooting: Clinton Central 3-10 (Robbins 3); Southmont 2-6 (Mason 2)
Rebounds: Clinton Central 19 (Surber 5, Parkinson 4); Southmont 24 (Jenkins 7, Gomez 6)
Turnovers: Clinton Central 18, Southmont 22
