By RICK SPRUNGER
BERNE — Southern Wells rode a big third quarter and then survived a wild finish to post a 37-36 come-from-behind win at South Adams Friday night.
South Adams’ Owen Wanner missed an open three-pointer from the right wing with 0:01 left to allow the Raiders to sneak out of town with their second straight win and first in Allen County Athletic Conference competition.
Southern Wells is now 1-3 in the ACAC and 4-10 overall.
South Adams fell to 2-12 in all games and to 0-4 in the conference.
“Winning close games is a process, and we haven’t been in very many this year,” said Southern Wells coach Joel Roush outside a happy Raider locker room after the game.
They had to do this one the hard way.
The Raiders spotted the Starfires a 23-13 halftime lead but came charging back, outscoring their hosts 16-3 in the third quarter on their way to a seven-point lead with 1:25 left in the game.
South Adams, showing some resiliency of its own, scored six points in the remaining time and had a very makeable three-pointer in the air for the win at the end.
Southern Wells did it by shutting down South Adams’ highly-touted sophomore Tytus Lehman on defense.
Lehman scored 11 of his 13 points in the first quarter to stake his team to an early 15-5 lead, but only managed two more points the rest of the way — none in the second half.
“Lehman is obviously a big part of what they do,” explained Roush of his team’s game plan. “We wanted to load our defense in his direction, not allow him to drive, and get a hand in his face. We wanted to know where he was at all times, and we did a really good job with that.”
With Lehman largely out of commission, the South Adams offense came to a halt and Southern Wells made its move.
The Raiders scored 13 unanswered points to start the third quarter to vault on top 26-23.
Chandler Oswalt started things with a fadeaway from the lane, then stole the ball and launched an upcourt pass to Evan Pennington for a layup.
Pennington then got a spin move on the baseline for two more and followed that up with a nice assist inside to Perrin Gates for a three-point play.
Andrew Aker got his second straight steal and fed Pennington for another fast-break layup to give the Raiders the lead, and Gates got a bucket inside off a feed from Oswalt.
Meanwhile, South Adams was getting nothing against a fired-up Raider defense.
“We’re playing a little more zone because teams like to drive and then kick it out for a three,” said Roush. “If we take away the drive, we take away the three.”
South Adams missed its first six shots of the quarter while committing six turnovers, three of them of the live-ball variety that led to breakaway Southern Wells scores.
The Starfires finally got off the goose-egg when Owen Wanner converted a three-point play to earn his team a 26-26 tie with 0:38 left.
A three-pointer by C.J. Reber just ahead of the buzzer restored the lead back to Southern Wells, and the Raiders never trailed again.
Not that it didn’t get mighty interesting at the end.
Two free throws by Oswalt at 1:25 seemed to put the game away for Southern Wells at 37-30 against the offensively challenged Starfires.
Wanner suddenly got hot.
He immediately ripped a three-pointer, then stole the ball on defense and hit another to slice the margin to 37-36 with still 0:51 left.
Pennington missed two free throws at 0:34, and South Adams had a chance.
Lehman got inside the Southern Wells defense for a five-footer but missed.
The rebound went out of bounds to South Adams under the basket with 0:04 left, and Wanner got off an open 20-footer from the right wing.
But the shot missed, and Southern Wells had its second straight win.
“We hung in there and battled,” said Roush. “I’m a firm believer that if you do the right thing often enough, good things will happen. We did an awful lot right tonight.”
That they did.
After committing six first-quarter turnovers and falling into that early 10-point hole, the Raiders only committed four more the rest of the game.
After connecting on just five of 18 first-half shots (.278), they drilled nine of 17 in the second half (.529).
Reber was the only Southern Wells player in double figures with 10 points, but Pennington, Oswalt, and Gates each finished with eight.
Wanner and Lehman each scored 13 points for South Adams, which hit on 15 of 36 shots for a .417 shooting percentage while turning the ball over 16 times.
Southern Wells also won the junior varsity contest, 23-18, in a game reduced to two quarters.
Trey Slusher scored eight points, Landon Johnson seven, Joshua Aulbach five, and Wade Tappy three for the Raiders.
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SOUTHERN WELLS 37,
SOUTH ADAMS 36
SOUTHERN WELLS (4-10, 1-3 ACAC): Andrew Aker 1-4 0-0 3, C.J. Reber 4-6 0-0 10, Evan Pennington 4-6 0-4 8, Chandler Oswalt 2-8 4-6 8, Perrin Gates 3-11 2-4 8, Caleb Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 14-35 8-14 37.
SOUTH ADAMS (2-12, 0-4 ACAC): Jax Wanner 2-5 0-0 4, Owen Wanner 5-9 1-1 13, Tytus Lehman 5-15 0-1 13, Noah Hunley 1-3 0-0 2, Conner Fear 0-0 0-0 0, Derek McKean 1-1 0-0 2, Oscar Vasquez 0-0 0-0 0, Diesel Ziegler 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Dee 1-3 0-0 2. TOTAL: 15-36 1-2 36.
Southern Wells 5 8 16 8 — 37
South Adams 15 8 3 10 — 36
Three-point shooting: Southern Wells 3-10 (Aker 1-3, Reber 2-4, Oswalt 0-3), South Adams 5-15 (J. Wanner 0-1, O. Wanner 2-6, Lehman 3-7, Dee 0-1). Rebounds: Southern Wells 19 (Gates 6, Reber 5), South Adams 27 (Lehman 9, O. Wanner 7). Turnovers: Southern Wells 10, South Adams 16. Personal fouls: Southern Wells 5, South Adams 14. Fouled Out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: Southern Wells 28, South Adams 18.
