South trims Eagles

Lanesville’s boys basketball team just can’t catch a break.
After shooting a putrid 5-19 in the first half, the Eagles only trailed by 12 at the halftime of Saturday’s nightcap of a girls-boys double-header against South Central.
To that point, the Rebels weren’t faring much better at 8-20 from the floor.
The hosts caught fire in the third and fourth quarters to post a sizzling 16 of 28 mark on field goals. The only trouble was South Central heated up, too, sinking 16 of 29 shots.
The end result was South Central capturing its 31st straight Southern Athletic Conference win ‘ and 11th consecutive over Lanesville ‘ 64-53.
The last time the Eagles (2-8) defeated South (6-5) came at home on Jan. 16, 1998, when they won in overtime, 70-68.
‘I don’t think we played very smart,’ Rebels coach Greg Robinson said. ‘When we extended our lead in the first half we did it with good, solid, position defense. They made two runs in the second half. The first run was a great effort on Lanesville’s part. They are a lot better than what their record indicates and they have some really good offensive players. The second run, when they got it to nine, I felt like we’d be okay if we went back to the way we were playing in the first half. Instead, we tried to push it back to 20 really fast and we forgot how we got it to 15. When we play under control, we can play defense against anybody.’
Brad Brown was the big man on campus for South, hitting four threes and finishing with a career-high 23 points. Teammate Derek Kaiser hit three-pointers at the buzzer at the end of the first two periods of play and wound up with 10 points for the winners.
‘Brad actually turned down some shots tonight. He’s playing team basketball and is taking shots when he gets them. He’s learning to shoot the ball off the dribble a little more and he’s really blossomed this year. He’s a great kid and we’re really happy for him,’ Robinson said.
Lanesville took an early 5-2 lead on a triple by Adam Brown and a two by David Barr. The duo wound up scoring 11 of their team’s 13 points in the first half.
Brad Brown followed Barr’s bucket with back-to-back treys and scored a deuce after an Adam Brown basket. Kaiser closed out the first period with two frees and his buzzer-beating three to set the first quarter score at 15-7.
Neither club got much going in the second frame, which also ended with a Kaiser three-pointer to keep the Rebels on top at the half, 25-13.
South refused to budge in the third period and extended the lead by one heading into the final eight minutes, 43-30.
That’s when Lanesville mounted a charge to get the score into single digits, finally breaking through on a three by Patrick Huffman with 1:28 remaining to trail 58-49.
The Eagles could get no closer the rest of the way as they matched South basket for basket.
‘We needed to be more aggressive instead of catching the ball and holding it like we did in the first half,’ Lanesville coach Mikel Miller said. ‘Dave (Barr) and Adam (Brown), ability-wise, are the two best players I’ve had. They can do pretty much anything. Sometimes they have a tendency to not be aggressive and that’s not really a flaw, because they are trying to be team players. But sometimes they need to take it upon themselves to do more.’
Barr finished with 16 points and Adam Brown scored 19. Jason Ketterer put in eight points as well for the Eagles.
Miller thought South’s Brown was the key factor in his team’s loss.
‘He was definitely the difference in the game. No one else did anything to hurt us. No one else on South Central hurt us. We just lost him on some screens by not talking,’ Miller said.
‘It’s tough to find a lot of great things to say when you are 2-8. There are some positives. The kids have kept a great attitude and are doing what is asked of them. We’ve got good seniors with good leadership.’
South Central wound up 24 of 49 for the game and 7-13 on threes. The club dropped in nine of 14 attempts from the foul stripe and came away winners in the battle of the boards (30-27). The Rebels fumbled the ball just 11 times, while forcing 14 Lanesville turnovers.
The Eagles went 21 of 47 from the field, 6-16 on threes and got the line just nine times, hitting five.