South coach Jake Turner best summed up the 36-28 conference win.
“I told the guys I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty, and we won ugly tonight.”
Holding the Stars to a South defensive season-low was offset by the Mounties scoring nearly at a season-low. South moves to 6-2 on the season, and 2-1 in the Sagamore, while the Stars fall to 1-6 and 0-3 in the league.
As it was during the girls game, defense ruled the night.
“We did a good job of guarding them,” Turner said, “and on offense we did a lot of good things, especially in the first half. We got a lot of good looks at the rim with shots, and we were patient and got some good looks, but we sure didn’t finish.”
Some of that not finishing was courtesy of the Stars defense that forced 17 turnovers and scored 15 points off those miscues.
“The turnovers were good for us,” WeBo coach Dustin Oakley said. “After every make, we jumped into our press, and we got a few points off that press. Our problem was that South took away all our penetration on offense and forced us to shoot over the top of them, and that made for a rough shooting night. Allowing 36 is one of our best defensive efforts, but 28 isn’t enough to win.”
The game was streaky for three quarters. South had a 7-0 first half run and a 7-2 spurt in the third quarter. The Stars scored eight to end the second quarter and another eight to end the third. It was 29-24 Mounties going into the last eight minutes.
And then the anchor dropped.
South got a field goal 30 seconds in, and didn’t get another point until there was 1:07 left.
WeBo didn’t score a point until there was only :58 left in the game. There were 17 fouls called in the final quarter but only 11 points scored. It was rock-em, sock-em basketball.
South was led in scoring by Carson Chadd. The senior had 11 points and finished his double-double with 12 boards. He added three assists and a blocked shot to his ledger.
Three Mounties each had six points. For the game, they were 14-of-29 from the floor, 2-of-7 from long range and 6-of-17 on a rocky free-throw shooting night. They finished with a 35-19 rebound margin.
The Stars were led in scoring by Levi Legrange with 13 points, and Marcus Stepp added nine before fouling out.
WeBo was 11-of-38 from the field, 1-of-10 from deep and 5-of-6 from the line. The finished with 10 turnovers.
“These guys always play hard,” Oakley said. “They are some of the best competitors I’ve ever been around. We have had a lot of really close games that could have gone our way with a bucket or a break. We really came at them hard, and after three quarters we were only down five. That fourth quarter was something else.”
The Stars take on Fountain Central Saturday night before a holiday break.
The Mounties are finished for a few days.
“We will come in and look at tonight’s game, work on a few things and then give the guys six days off,” Turner said. “It’s a good break for both the coaches and players. Then we will get back to work and get ready for the Sugar Creek Classic.”
Which, in a nice twist, will have the Mounties and Stars facing off in the first round.
SOUTHMONT 36, WESTERN BOONE 28
Score by Quarters
WeBo 7 9 8 4 - 28
South 10 7 12 7 - 36
WeBo (1-6, 0-3)
FG-FGA FT-FTA PTs: Barta 1-5 0-0 2, Stepp 2-8 4-4 9, Bennington 2-10 0-0 4, Legrange 6-12 1-2 13, Gott 0-1 0-0 0, Miller 0-1 0-0 0, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Hawkins 0-1 0-0 0, Kopriva 0-0 0-0 0.Totals 11-38 5-5 28.
South (6-2, 2-1)
Chadd 5-7 1-4 11, Ward 1-4 3-5 6, McCandless 2-3 0-0 4, Hess 0-1 0-2 0, Brewer 3-9 0-0 6, Oppy 2-3 2-6 6, Reimondo 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 14-29 6-17 36.
3-Pt Shooting
WeBo 1-10 (Hawkins 0-1, Stepp 1-5, Bennington 0-2, Legrange 0-1, Miller 0-1); South 2-7 (Reimondo 1-2, Ward 1-3, Gess 0-1, Brewer 0-1).
Rebounds
WeBo 19 (Barta 5); South 35 (Chadd 12, Ward 6, Brewer 5).
Turnovers
WeBo 10; South 17.
Pts off TOs
WeBo 15; South 4.