By ANDREW FEEBACK
MUNCIE— The Southern Wells Raiders were already facing an uphill battle against the Muncie Burris Owls Tuesday night, and hot shooting from the Owls only complicated matters as the Raiders lost 72-48.
The Raiders (3-9) were missing two starters from their lineup, but coach Joel Roush wasn’t about to use that as an excuse and felt his team struggled with its offense.
“I thought we probably struggled most with offensive flow or a lack of it,” he said. “We were getting open shots, but I’m not sure they were always the shot we necessarily wanted at the time. I bet we played defense for 12 of the 16 minutes of the first half. That’s asking a lot of anybody defensively. The shots we took weren’t bad, but we want to make the other team guard us a little bit.”
Burris (3-8) raced out to a 9-0 lead before Jenson Nusbaumer got the Raiders on the board with a three-pointer at the 3:47 mark.
The three-point shooting of seniors Colin McBride and Carter Fisher helped the Owls take control, with back-to-back triples giving the Owls a 27-12 lead by the middle of the second quarter.
Southern Wells was still within striking distance as the first half wound down, but Burris managed to score five points in the final three seconds after Fisher scored and was fouled, made the free throw, and another foul was called on the Raiders on the block-out attempt. Fisher made two more, and suddenly, the Raiders went into halftime down 20 instead.
The Raiders got a pair of threes from Chandler Oswalt in the third quarter and started getting a bit more from their offense, but it wasn’t enough to offset what the Owls got from McBride. He hit four more treys in the third quarter alone, finishing 8 of 12 from beyond the arc on his way to leading all scorers with 26 points.
Fisher drained one from about 30 feet away to end the third quarter, putting the Owls up 59-33. He finished with 24 points.
Burris was 12 of 24 from the perimeter and 25 of 53 overall. Southern Wells was 6 of 18 from deep and 16 of 50 overall.
Oswalt was the only Raider to reach double figures with 18 points, while Andrew Aker added nine.
The Raiders had to play more zone defense in this one than they typically do, and Roush wants to see his team get better at doing that.
“We had to play more zone tonight because we were low on numbers and we wanted to try to keep out of foul trouble,” he said. “There are going to be growing pains defensively with the zone, but all of the things that were a problem tonight are fixable. It’s a learning process.”
No JV game was played.
Southern Wells will host South Adams Friday night.
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MUNCIE BURRIS 72,
SOUTHERN WELLS 48
At Muncie Burris
SOUTHERN WELLS (3-9): Kedrik Sonnigen 1-5 0-0 2, Nick Lozoya 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Aker 4-13 0-1 9, Jenson Nusbaumer 3-6 0-0 8, Bryar Gearheart 0-2 2-2 2, Evan Pennington 0-0 0-0 0, Tucker Worster 0-0 0-0 0, Chandler Oswalt 4-16 7-8 18, CJ Reber 0-0 0-0 0, Tristen Worster 0-0 0-0 0, Gage Roberts 0-0 0-0 0, Quinton Mullins 1-2 0-0 2, Perrin Gates 3-6 1-2 7. TOTALS: 16-50 10-13 48.
MUNCIE BURRIS (3-8): Colin McBride 8-14 2-2 26, Bryce Karnes 5-9 1-4 12, Ethan Doerner 0-0 0-0 0, Jason Trammel 0-2 0-0 0, Ethan Hartsook 0-1 1-4 1, Connor McKibben 0-8 1-2 1, Rees Cook 0-1 0-0 0, Carter Fisher 8-11 5-6 24, Asher Donahue 2-5 0-0 4, Timo Minnich 0-0 0-0 0, Haoyang Zhang 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Bennett 2-2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 25-53 10-18 72.
Southern Wells 9 8 16 15 — 48
Muncie Burris 19 18 22 13 — 72
Three-point Goals: Southern Wells 6-18 (Oswalt 3-9, Nusbaumer 2-3, Aker 1-4, Mullins 0-1, Sonnigsen 0-1), Muncie Burris 12-24 (McBride 8-12, Fisher 3-4, Karnes 1-2, McKibben 0-4, Trammel 0-1, Cook 0-1). Rebounds: Southern Wells 20 (Gates 5, Nusbaumer 5, Oswalt 4, Aker 3, Sonnigsen 2, Gearheart 1), Muncie Burris 33 (Donahue 9, Fisher 7, Bennett 5, Karnes 5, McKibben 4, McBride 2, Trammel 1). Turnovers: Southern Wells 15, Muncie Burris 17. Fouls: Southern Wells 20, Muncie Burris 13. Fouled out: Mullins. Technicals: None.
