South Wins at Covington, Loses at Bethel

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This week South played 2 games that were the inverse of one another.  Both were away games, but when you look at the scores by quarters, the games were opposites.  The Covington game was rescheduled for Tuesday.  And in that that game a smoking hot South squad exploded for 19 first quarter points while only giving up 4.  Although Covington challenged in the second half, South was able to hold them off for the victory.  Seth Baker had another stellar game with 35 points to lead all scorers. 

But against Bethel the story was different.  The scoring was slow by both squads in the first quarter but Bethel held an advantage – up 10-5.  The Bee’s used a variety of defenses during the night and opened in a man to man, and full court pressure. But by the end of the night they used a 1-2-2 zone to pressure South’s outside shooting.  South closed the distance a bit at the end of the half, and were down by a bucket 21-19.

Bethel’s Patrick Bain would lead all scorers with 26 points.  And so in the third quarter South paid some extra attention to him, putting JJ Utz on him as a chaser and playing a box and one on defense.  But the remainder of the Bethel offense kept pace and didn’t really allow South to make a run.  Jordan Burns got 2 fouls back to back early in the quarter and Seth Baker would get his 4^th foul early in the 4^th quarter and so 2 of South’s starters were benched.

And in the last quarter, the Bee’s took advantage scoring baskets in transition and slicing to the basket in half court to get easy points.  At the other end of the court, South’s shooting was cold – and Bethel was not giving them many uncontested looks.  It was a frustrating 4^th quarter and that was evident when they were called for an intentional foul late in the game.  And in a game that was the antithesis of the game earlier in the week, South gave up 23 4^th quarter points and scored only 3.  Bethel would win 59-37.  And Seth Baker, who had been the leading scorer for South, was held to just 7 points.

“They thoroughly outplayed us in the 4^th quarter,” stated coach Augspurger after the game, “We put ourselves into position to have a chance to win.  We stayed close in the 1^st quarter, we have some of our guys back and we put them in the 2^nd quarter and they made up 3 points and actually tied the game at one point.  And in the 4^th quarter Bethel just took us out, they played much, much better than what we did.”

On Bethel: “They were quick and athletic when they went into their 1-2-2 zone. Patrick Bain is one of the better players to play in this league.  He is a legitimate recruitable player – he should not have to pay a dime to go to college.  He kept them in it and ahead of us in the first half.  And in the second half we went to a defense that we had not practiced and although we did a good job of chasing Bain, their other guys attacked us.  They used their quickness and spread out our defense to get good looks at the basket.”

Scoring for TVS: Cole 11,Green 9, Osborn 6, Utz 4, Baker 7.