By RYAN WALKER
UNION CITY — To say Southern Wells got red hot in the second half is an understatement.
The Raiders (2-7) picked up their lone win of the Union City Holiday Tournament in the fifth-place game by simply thrashing Randolph Southern (1-8) in the second half to win 79-53.
Belive it or not, Southern Wells needed a Chandler Oswalt three with 50 seconds to go to regain the lead before halftime at 26-25.
But what happened after halftime was unthinkable — nine made threes and 62 percent from the floor converted into a 53-28 second half for the Raiders.
“I think it’s just a matter of seeing the ball go through the basket,” Southern Wells head coach Joel Roush said after the game. “Confidence builds confidence and it just continued to build on itself. Things just really, really kind of snowballed.”
Oswalt’s three to lead his team into the half was just one of many. The senior guard splashed three of them in the first half, then caught fire and nailed five more in the second.
His eight was hit for the third time in a row, all within the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. He was met at halfcourt by teammate Evan Pennington with a grin on his face and an emphatic high-five.
Oswalt finished with a game-high 29 points and went 8-14 from beyond the arc. He hit from deep territory and contested looks, drawing some attention toward him. That allowed Andrew Aker to find space in the corner and knock down five of his own.
“It’s not like (Oswalt’s) forcing bad shots. These are rhythm shots that his teammates got,” Roush said. “My favorite part is that he was able to return the favor and get Andrew a couple of wide-open threes too when he would shot fake (then) they would fly at him and he pitched it to Andrew. And Andrew was able to knock down some threes too.”
On the defensive side, it wasn’t the team’s best effort, but enough to hold its streak. Roush shared that it was apart of the halftime speech to clean some things up on that end fo the floor.
The Rebels still only went 9-30 in the first half, but the Raiders gave them 20 chances at points from the charity stripe with 16 fouls.
In Southern Wells’ first game, the team fell by five in overtime to Elwood. Roush felt like there was an opportunity missed with that game to play in the 3rd place contest, which would have set up another shot at Bluffton before their other game in the ACAC Tournament.
Even though Southern Wells went 1-2 in the tournament, it had reaped some benefits and hit on a goal Roush was looking for.
Last season, Roush’s squad was playing their best basketball around the same time, winning three out of four before Christmas. The team didn’t play in a tournament that season and took an 18-day break in between which perhaps ended up costing them. The Raiders lost six in a row after that.
But the win over Randolph Southern at least sets them up for success in the new year instead of an almost three-week absence.
“I think we developed some confidence,” Roush said.
“We felt like we maybe should have beat Elwood. We missed a lot of shots around the basket missing a bunch of free throws. I think what we learned too, is that if we continue to plug away, good things will happen for us and we’ll continue to improve and I think you saw that tonight.”
Southern Wells will wait eight days for its next game at Heritage in ACAC play starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 6.
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SOUTHERN WELLS 79, RANDOLPH SOUTHERN 53
At Union City High School
SOUTHERN WELLS (2-7): Chandler Oswalt 9-16 3-4 29, Andrew Aker 6-10 0-0 17, Perrin Gates 4-5 2-2 10, Evan Pennington 3-5 2-2 8, CJ Reber 2-5 2-2 6, Caleb Johnson 2-2 1-2 5, Landon Johnson 1-3 0-0 3, Trey Slusher 0-1 0-0 0, Joshua Aulbach 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 27-47 10-14 79.
RANDOLPH SOUTHERN (1-8): Noah Allen 5-12 8-11 20, Ronnie Dotson 3-13 1-2 9, Brody Mills 3-9 0-0 8, Taysen Stewart 2-3 2-3 6, Brody Sullival 2-5 1-2 5, Ian Vance 1-3 0-0 2, Bryson Grimes 0-3 0-2 0, Beau Atkins 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16-51 12-20 53.
So. Wells 15 11 29 24 –– 79
Randolph 13 12 11 17 –– 53
Three-point FG: Southern Wells: 15-29 (Oswalt 8-14, Aker 5-9, L. Johnson 1-2, Reber 0-2), Randolph Southern: 8-25 (Allen 4-6, Dotson 2-10, Mills 2-5, Jefferies 0-1, Vance 0-1). Rebounds: Southern Wells: 24 (Pennington 5, Gates 5, Reber 4, Aker 4, Oswalt 3, C. Johnson 1, L. Johnson 1, Aulbach 1) , Randolph Southern: 18 (Mills 8, Allen 7, Stewart 6, Dotson 1, Jefferies 1, Sullivan 11, Grimes 1, Vance 1, Atkins 1). Turnovers: Southern Wells: 7, Randolph Southern: 10. Fouls: Southern Wells: 16, Randolph Southern: 12. Fouled Out: None.Technicals: None.
