LINDEN – Dan Burkman has now guided the Southmont Mounties to a pair of Sugar Creek Classic titles in the last four seasons as the Mounties defeated county rival North Montgomery 36-14 in the lowest scoring game in Sugar Creek Classic history. Neither team was able to get anything going offensively with the score being just 3-2 Mounties after a quarter. South then led 13-5 at halftime.
The Chargers (4-3) made just three field goal the entire game as all three were made by junior Piper Ramey who ended with eight points. Macee Norman was the only other Charger to score with six.
Southmont coach Dan Burkman sets the Sugar Creek Classic as a goal for his team each and every season and now the Mounties can check off one of their pre-season goals.
“It was an awesome finish and I’m proud of the girls for battling in a tough physical game,” Burkman said. “It took just about everyone on the bench. We played five freshman out there in the third quarter and I thought that they brought a different energy and gave us a lift when we needed them.”
Southmont (4-2) had eight different players score and freshman Emily Link led the Mounties with seven. DeLorean Mason added six, with both Layla Gomez and Molly Williams scored five. Cheyenne Shaw and Olivia Gray scored four each, Claire Kessler three and Kenzie Douglas rounded out the scoring with two.
For the game Southmont shot 13-49 (26.5%) from the field and 10-18 (5%) from the foul line. The Mounties grabbed 35 rebounds and turned it over 24 times.
North Montgomery coach Ryan Nuppnau noted how the offensive struggles for his team was something that simply needs to get better.
“When you only make three field goals for the entire game and then combine that with shooting poorly from the free-throw line things typically wont’ go well for you,” he said. “We missed plenty of bunnies at the rim and if we make some of those then maybe we’re tied at halftime. It makes it a little more discouraging because we played so well defensively. It was a physical game and a dog fight. We kept ourselves in the game on defense, but then would go down and have a forced turnover. When you have so many empty possessions it’s tough to overcome.”
North Montgomery made just 3-33 (.09%) from the field including 0-11 from three. They ended the night 8-16 (50%) from the free throw line and had 31 rebounds. As Nuppnau mentioned the Chargers struggled against the Mountie pressure and turned the ball over 29 times.
Both teams will now move forward and have games before taking a small break for thanksgiving. The Mounties will be back in action Monday and Tuesday when they travel to South Putnam on Monday and welcome North Putnam on Tuesday. The Chargers will have one game before the break when they travel to Fountain Central on Tuesday.
“I hope this is the game something that jump starts us,” Burkman said. “We have back to back games on Monday and Tuesday and those games won’t be easy by any stretch, but I think we have good momentum going into it.”
