NEW MARKET — The Southmont boys’ basketball team defeated the North Vermillion Falcons 68-46 Saturday evening.
The Mounties (2-6) used a balanced scoring attack to reach their highest point total of the year. Logan Oppy led the team in scoring with 17 points, complemented by Luke Gregg, who scored 11. Austin Bowman added nine, and Carson Chadd chipped in eight.
“Logan’s (Oppy) a great shooter and has very good basketball intuition,” Southmont coach Jake Turner said of the sophomore. “He’s a good help defender and passer and seems to get his hands on a lot of balls, whether that be rebounds or a deflection; he just seems to be in the right spot at the right time.”
“Sometimes he’s not always ready to shoot on the catch, and we kind of have to get on him about that,” Turner continued, “but when he has his hands ready and his feet are ready to shoot, he’s got a pretty pure stroke. It was nice to see him play well, and he’s had some good games and been pretty consistent for us this year.”
Aside from Oppy, Turner also was complimentary of the play of Luke Gregg and Austin Bowman.
“Luke Gregg put together another consistent performance for us. He played well last night and played well again tonight,” he said. “Austin [Bowman] has been guarding one of the opposing team’s best players as well as doing well offensively for us, too.”
Despite some early foul trouble from one of their consistent scorers, Carson Chadd, the Mounties went into halftime with a commanding 34-17 lead, and led by 16 going into the fourth quarter.
One thing that was a commonality throughout the course of the game was the Mounties’ ball movement and offensive pressure.
“I thought overall, we did a pretty good job of sharing the ball. I also thought we did a good job of really putting pressure on them in their transition defense. We wanted to at least make them think about getting back in transition, and I thought we did a good job of running when opportunities were there and when they turned it over versus our press,” Turner said. “I also thought we did a pretty good job of reversing the ball and being ready on the catch. That’s still something we need to improve upon, but it’s just nice to get a comfortable win, because we haven’t had a lot of those in the last two years.”
With the Mounties’ next action not being until they face off against Crawfordsville in the Sugar Creek Classic, Turner hopes that the team can rest up for a few days, and use the win as motivation going into the matchup.
“It’s definitely going to make everyone’s Christmas better knowing that both the JV and Varsity got a win. We’re going to tell the kids to stay away from the gym, and enjoy their six days off and we want them to come back hungry and missing the game.”
Southmont faces off against Crawfordsville in the Sugar Creek Classic on Jan. 10 at Crawfordsville High School.
