VEEDERSBURG — Fountain Central boys’ basketball coach Greg Dean was afraid of a letdown following Friday nights’ Wabash River Conference win at Parke Heritage.
But, a pre-game celebration of the Mustangs’ 1973 sectional title team was all the motivation needed for Fountain Central to race past Southmont 62-44 on Saturday night.
“Honoring this 1973, our guys walked out of the gym from that and into the locker room and they were excited and I think had some goosebumps going,” second-year FC coach Greg Dean said. “It was fun to do and I think gave us energy.”
Will Harmon connected on 8-of-12 shots from the field in the first half, including seven 3-pointers. The junior led all scorers with 30 for the game, as Fountain Central turned a 20-10 lead after a quarter into a 39-23 halftime advantage over the Mounties.
“I thought we did a really good job of guarding,” Dean said. “And that’s a group that can put together points and score the basketball in a lot of different ways. I thought our guys did a really good job of executing a game plan. Luke Foxworthy was fantastic on Chadd, and I thought it all started with him. We did a nice job of running their shooters off the line and keeping their guys out of the lane.”
Southmont shot 55% from the field in the first half, but took just 11 shots and turned it over eight times.
“They’re a good defensive team. Give them credit, they’re physical and well coached,” Southmont coach Jake Turner said. “We talked about that we have to be patient, get the ball reversed, and I didn’t think we were patient enough. We talked about how we had to do three things if we wanted to win this game. We had to take care of the ball and be patient on offense. We had to limit Harmon and Larkin and win the boards. And we didn’t do any of those things.”
Vince Reimondo led Southmont with 12 points off the bench, while Fountain Central held Chadd, who fouled out in the third quarter, scoreless.
Once Harmon got going, it opened up the offense for the Mustangs, even with big-man Mason Larkin sitting most of the first half in foul trouble.
“Right now he’s (Harmon) shooting it well, and once he starts hitting buckets, other guys kind of key on him and he finds other guys that are open and obviously if we can get that type of shooting night from him, we’ve got an opportunity to win games,” Dean said.
Harmon was 7-of-10 from deep for the game and Koby Wolf was 2-of-2. Fountain Central was 22-of-46 from the field in the win, including a 10-of-16 effort from three.
“A guy that can shoot the three off the dribble like that and he’s an excellent passer, it’s tough to guard in the fact that whatever coverage you put on him, you kind of pick your poison on the fact that if you put two on the ball, he’s going to get it out of there and they’ve got good enough guys around him that can make plays,” Turner said.
Isaac Gayler added 11 for the Mustangs, while Larkin scored nine. EJ Brewer chipped in nine for the Mounties, who were 14-of-34 from the field, and just 3-of-12 on 3-point attempts.
Fountain Central improves to 17-4, while Southmont falls to 13-6. The Mounties will have a quick turnaround as they travel to South Putnam on Tuesday while the Mustangs will be idle until Friday whne they host North Vermillion. A win agaisnt the Falcons on Friday would give the Mustangs the out-right WRC title.
FOUNTAIN CENTRAL 62, SOUTHMONT 44
Score By Quarter
SM 10 13 11 10 - 44
FC 20 19 11 12 - 62
Southmont (13-6)
FG-FGA FT-FTA Pts: Carson Chadd 0-3 0-0 0, Vince Reimondo 5-13 1-2 12, Trip Ward 3-7 1-2 9, Kyler McCandless 0-1 0-0 0, Hayden Hess 2-3 0-0 4, Lorenzo Bell 0-1 0-0 0, EJ Brewer 1-1 7-9 9, Aaron McMasters 1-2 1-2 3, Carter Hubble 2-3 2-4 6, Evan Watson 0-0 1-2 1; Totals 14-34 13-21 44
Fountain Central (17-4)
Mason Larkin 3-9 3-4 9, Will Harmon 11-19 0-0 30, Brayden Prickett 0-1 0-0 0, Koby Wolf 2-3 0-0 6, Isaac Gayler 4-7 3-3 11, Owen Acton 0-1 2-2 2, Luke Foxworthy 1-3 0-0 2, Isaac Hehmann 1-2 0-0 2, Rylan Mayotte 0-1 0-1 0; Totals 22-46 8-9 62
3 pt shooting: 3-13 (Ward 2, Reimondo), Fountain Central 10-16 (Harmon 8, Wolf 2)
Rebounding: SM 24, FC 24
Turnovers: SM 17, 11