Battered South Bests Brookville

Twin Valley South had a tough game Friday night, losing by single point to league rival, Mississinewa Valley.  And their weekend did not get any easier as they had to take on Brookville on Saturday night. The team is already shorthanded with Anthony Augspurger out due to injury and although Troy Innis is able to play – he isn’t 100%.  And just before halftime,  yet another South starter was dinged up scrambling for a loose ball - Wes Cole spent part of halftime visiting the trainers room – but he was cleared to play and finished the game.  

The game itself was one of those rubber band games – one team stretches the lead, the other makes a run, but can’t quite catch up.  Then the first team makes another little run and stretches the lead out again. South found themselves in the driver’s seat – but it was not a smooth ride.  They extended their lead out to 9-10 points a few times during the game, but could not shake Brookville who doggedly stayed on their tail.  That rubber band got real short in the last minute of the game when South had a 2 point lead with less than a minute left.

South’s half court offense was strong in the first quarter.  Post player Mike Green was getting good looks on the inside while the South perimeter was knocking down treys on the outside.  Wes Cole, Jesse Wysong, and Seth Baker all connected for three’s in the first quarter.   This gave TVS a comfortable 18-9 lead.  But Brookville turned up the intensity on defense in the second quarter and also went into a full court man to man defense.   This gave Brookville some points from South turnovers and prompted their first good run of the night.  The Blue Devils scored the first 6 points of the quarter and now it was game.  Unofficially I had South with 5 turnovers on their first 5 possessions of the quarter.  The team did settle down and re-extend their lead late in the quarter.  Jesse Wysong connected on another trey at the 2 minute mark and gave South a brief 10 point lead.   South went into the locker room with a 36-27 lead.

The 3^rd quarter saw more intense action as the teams scrambled for every loose ball, every rebound.  And so both teams started to accumulate fouls.  At the end of the 3rd quarter Wes Cole got his 4^th foul and went to the bench.  Likewise Seth Baker got his 4^th foul at the start of the 4^th quarter and he went to the bench as well.  Both teams would be getting double bonus in the last quarter.   Brookville gradually closed the gap – making it a 2 point game with less than a minute left.  Free throws were critical for South.   Mike Green would be high scorer with 34 points – 14 from free throws.  And 8 of those free throws were hit down the stretch in the 4^th quarter.   But in the waning seconds South bricked a total of 4 free throws – allowing Brookville to have a chance to tie it with seconds left in the game.  But Brookville muffed an inbound pass – giving South the ball with the lead and one second on the clock.  They inbounded and held the ball for a 67-64 victory.

“This was the best offensive game that we have played,” stated coach Augspurger, “We were better offensively than we have been all year long.  We mixed up the inside – outside [shooting] pretty well.  Mike Green was strong last night, but he was even stronger tonight.  Jesse Wysong did a really good job of handling pressure, running the show, and matching up on defense.  It was a good win for us, after coming off of a disappointing win last night.  We lost a game that we believe we should have won.  We let them out rebound us at both ends of the court.  They got all the hustle plays and we just didn’t play very well at all. But we responded to adversity very well tonight.”

On Mike Green, “We are trying to teach him that if he goes to the rim, he is very hard to stop.  And tonight he did that.  If you go to the rim, ref’s will give you calls but if you fade away from the rim – they won’t.  And Mike played very, very well – he made his shots, got his own rebound several times and put it in.  He’s an athletic kid and I think he is just seeing how he can use that athleticism, tonight he took some steps in the right direction.”  

Scoring for TVS:  Wes Cole 7, Jesse Wysong 8, Mike Green 34, Troy Innis 4, Seth Baker 8, JJ Utz 6.