WILLIAMSPORT — Southmont used a dominate third quarter to run past Seeger 50-34 on Friday night in boys’ basketball.
Leading 20-13 at the half, the Mounties exploded for 20 points in the third quarter to go ahead 40-24 entering the fourth. Avery Saunders scored nine of his game-high 19 points in the period, helping Southmont to a 13-2 run in the middle of the quarter.
“Some areas to improve upon, but as I told the guys in the locker room, winning is hard,” Southmont coach Jake Turner said. “There’s not a lot of bad teams around. It’s tough to win games, and we will take it against a well coached and good team.”
The win, which comes after the Mounties (9-1) suffered their first loss of the season last weekend, wasn’t just handed to them. After a 10-2 start, the Patriots (4-7) responded with an 11-10 advantage in the second quarter.
Southmont’s defensive effort was par for the course, but outside of the third quarter, the Mounties lacked offensive firepower.
“I think we are doing some good things defensively,” Turner said. “We are holding teams in the low 40s or below 40 consistently, we’ve just got to be more efficiently offensively. We just have too many empty possessions. Whether that’s careless turnovers, forcing a little bit in the half-court. We are doing some other teams favors by either rushing it or turning the ball over and not even giving ourselves a chance.”
Southmont committed 13 turnovers in the win, while forcing 15 from Seeger.
Turner did feel like his team brought better energy for all 32 minutes, and used offensive rebounding to provide a spark.
“One thing I thought we did a little bit better job tonight was offensive rebounding,” he said. “Carson gave us great effort on the offensive boards and really on both ends in terms of rebounding, which is really what we need from him, because then we can get out in run and try and get some easy buckets.”
Southmont had 11 offensive rebounds, many by Chadd, who also chipped in eight points. Logan Oppy joined Saunders in double-figures with 13.
And the energy came from every player who touched the floor.
“I thought we played hard,” Turner added. “EJ Brewer gave us some great minutes. Avery always plays with energy, Trip Ward coming in there and giving us some good minutes. I do think we play hard, it’s just some of those little things that may not seem important to the guys, but they’re a big deal in terms of boxing out, being fundamentally sound.”
Owen Snedeker, who had to work around foul trouble, led Seeger with 16 points. The Patriots were 14-of-47 from the field and just 2-of-16 on 3-Point attempts.
Southmont was 50% from the field on 19-of-38 shooting and outrebounded Seeger 29-27.
The Mounties hit the road to the Wabash River Conference again tonight, traveling to Riverton Parke.
Slow Start dooms Lady Mounties
A slow start was too much to overcome for Southmont girls’ basketball on Friday in a 50-34 loss at Seeger.
The Patriots jumped to a 17-5 lead after a quarter, and never looked back.
“Again we dug ourselves a big hole at the start of the game,” Mounties’ coach Dan Burkman said. “Third and fourth quarter we kind of settled in and got going.”
Southmont’s highest point total for a quarter was 13 in the second, but still trailed 34-18 at the half. The Mounties played the Patriots even the rest of the way.
Dori Frederick led Southmont in scoring with nine points on a trio of 3-point makes, while DeLorean Mason added eight. Chelsea Veatch chipped in seven and with the help of Olivia Gray gave the Mounties a second half spark.
“Chelsea is looking much more comfortable out there offensively, which I like to see and Olivia has been kind of shining the last two or three weeks,” Burkman added. “She’s been seeing more action and she keeps stepping up and making things happen.”
Southmont (6-8) was without the services of senior leading scorer and rebounder Belle Miller on Friday. Burkman believes the post-player would have made a difference against a smaller Seeger lineup.
“We definitely missed Belle tonight, I think she would have been a big factor, but we’ve got to move on,” he said.
The Patriots (15-4) were efficient though on both ends of the floor. Seeger connected on 16-of-35 shots, including a 6-of-13 mark from the outside and forced 24 Southmont turnovers. Aubry Cole and Riley Shrader led the way for the Patriots with 17 apiece.
Southmont was just 13-of-37 from the field and 3-of-10 on 3-Point shots, but did outrebound Seeger 29-20.
Southmont is back in action at Western Boone on Monday, with plenty to build even after a loss.
“We are still working on our half-court offense and tonight I saw a lot of good things, so we are going to build on that and keep practicing it, and hopefully in three weeks be ready come tournament time,” Burkman added.
