South Rebounds Over Weekend

After a tough loss to start the week against league leading and defending state champs Tri-Village, Twin Valley South was able to rebound from that loss with a pair of wins to end the week with renewed momentum.  Against the Patriots, South could only muster 30 points, but over the weekend they scored 58 and 63 points in their two wins.  South’s offense has been struggling to score this season and it seems like the team might have found another gear.

Tuesday’s game was a defensive battle between the Panthers and Partiots.  South tried hard to keep the game close, but open shots were hard to come by.  And the Patriots offense was slowed but not stopped entirely by South.  They would win 43-30, but South had a morale victory of sorts in that they held Tri-Village to 43 points - their lowest point total of the season for their high powered team.

South could have been demoralized by the loss - it did drop them back to a .500 record.  But the team seemed eager to prove themselves.  Although they did not not start either game particularly strong, the team finished furiously both times. Against Shawnee, the team was down at halftime and outscored them in the second half for a 63-53 win.  Newton held the game close until the last quarter where again South went on a scoring binge and opened a 10 point lead for a 58-48 victory.

South’s offense prowess was thanks in part to Mike Meyers who scored in double figures both games. JJ Utz and Jacob Bassler have been the main scorers for South this season, and South has been needing a 3rd scoring option.  Meyers had 14 points against Newton and 22 points against Shawnee.  So he provided some extra offensive punch for South when the team needed to rebound from the Tri Village game.

Coach Augspurger on this past week, “Tri Village is doing a better job of pushing the ball this season. In the past they relied more on their half court sets. I thought we battled against them fairly well, but their defense is very good - we were just unable to score.  But this weekend, I thought we played pretty good.  We put up 58 and 63 points in back to back games, something we have done much this season.”

He continued on the wins, “Our offense was much better this weekend. We did not defend quite as well this weekend - but we weren’t bad. We had 12 3’s against Shawnee.  One big change was Mike Meyers.  He has been in a massive shooting slump. He had a great summer and we were looking for big things, but it has not been his season until now.  Hopefully this is the start of big things from him.  Winston Crossier had some big three’s for us and Jared Cottingim scored 9, so it is great to see them starting to score. ”

Next weekend South will be on the road, visiting Mississinewa Valley on Friday, and Brookville - who knocked South out of the playoffs last season, on Saturday.