NEW MARKET — Every senior athlete no matter the sport dreams of playing their best on their senior night. For Southmont’s Avery Saunders and Logan Oppy they did just that as the Mounties hosted Owen Valley on Saturday and dominated the Patriots for an 81-56 victory. The 81 points was a season high for the Mounties as their offense couldn’t be stopped shooting 75 percent from the field.
Saunders and Oppy led the way as Saunders scored career high 30 points and grabbed 11 rebound while Oppy shot lights out from behind the arc making six threes to score 18. Southmont coach Jake Turner couldn’t say enough about the way his team played and especially the play of his two seniors.
“It was nice to get out to an early lead so we could start to pressure them a little bit,” he said. “We did a much better job of taking care of the basketball tonight and when we don’t turn it over and execute we’re a very hard team to guard. I’m just really happy for Logan and Avery and their families that we could play so well and give them something to cheer about on their senior night. They’ve put in a lot of work over the past four years and they deserved to have a night like this.”
The Mounties jumped out to a 25-7 lead after the first quarter and never looked back as they led 39-18 going into the locker room at halftime. Owen Valley was able to knock down some threes in the second half to score 38 points but the Patriots just had no answer for anything the Mounties wanted to do offensively. To go along with Oppy’s 18 and Saunders 30, Carson Chadd scored 12, Trip Ward added eight and six other Mounties got in the scoring column as they were able to empty their bench late in the game.
Still though the night belonged to both Saunders and Oppy as Turner praised his two seniors and the work they’ve put in over the course of their careers.
“They’ve earned all of their success,” Turner said. “They’re constantly in the gym and play one on one, play AAU together and are at every single workout we have. I couldn’t keep them out of the gym while they were running track in the spring. They never complain about the work that require out of them and that’s set the culture for our program.”
Zack Hamilton led the Patriots with 18 points while Cayden Paquette scored 16 and Caden Gonser added 12. Owen Valley falls to 5-8 on the year.
Southmont improves to 12-3 (4-1 SAC) on the season and next up on the docket will be another tough and physical SAC opponent as the Mounties will travel to Tri-West on Thursday. By winning their last two conference games Southmont can clinch a share of the conference title.
“They’re a very similar team to Lebanon,” Turner said of the Bruins. “Hopefully we can learn from the mistakes we made in the Lebanon game and improve on those. We know its one we have to get if we want a share of the conference. They expect to beat us but we’ll have our guys ready to go.”
Southmont 81, Owen Valley 56
Score By Quarter
SM 25 14 19 23 — 81
OV 7 11 20 18 — 56
Southmont (12-3)
FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Avery Saunders 12-15 6-7 30, Logan Oppy 6-9 0-0 18, Carson Chadd 6-8 0-1 12, Trip Ward 4-5 0-0 8, EJ Brewer 2-3 0-0 4, Kion Cornelius 1-1 0-0 3, Hayden Hess 0-0 2-2 2, Carter Hubble 1-1 0-4 2, Vincent Reimondo 1-1 0-0 2; Totals 33-44 8-14 81
Owen Valley (5-8):
Zack Hamilton 7-13 3-4 18, Cayden Paquette 3-6 5-9 16, Caden Gonser 3-7 3-3 13, Eli Wood 2-6 0-0 5, Drew Kristoff 1-1 0-0 3, Rhet Heckman 1-2 0-0 2, Dylan Herbert 0-1 0-0 0; Totals 18-39 11-16 56
3-Point Shooting: Southmont 7-13 (Oppy 6, Ward), Owen Valley 9-23 (Gonser 3, Hamilton 2, Paquette 2, Wood, Kristoff)
Rebounds: Southmont 25 (Saunders 11), Owen Valley 12
Turnovers: Southmont 7, Owen Valley 12