By ANDREW FEEBACK
A rough game brought an end to a rough season for the Southern Wells Raiders Friday night, as they fell to the Lakeland Christian Cougars in sectional play, 64-31.
Back in January, the Cougars visited the Raiderdome and narrowly escaped with a 5-point win.
In that matchup, the Raiders fell behind early, but staged a late rally that nearly won the game.
This time around, the Raiders fell behind again, but a comeback never materialized, as they simply could not put the ball in the basket.
“In the first half, we shot the ball very, very poorly,” coach Kyle Penrod said. “Our assistant had us for five turnovers at the half when I asked. I couldn’t believe that we had five turnovers and only 10 points.”
After taking an early 4-2 lead, things went south in a hurry for Southern Wells.
The Cougars (15-10) got 3-pointers from Landon Gause and Hunter Rice to take the lead, and from there they just kept building it. They scored the last 11 points of the first quarter, then got 5 more to begin the second.
The Raiders managed only two baskets in the second quarter and saw themselves down 32-10 at the break. They failed to make a 3-pointer in the first half and did not shoot any free throws.
In fact, they only shot two free throws for the entire game and went just 3-of-21 beyond the arc.
“We just didn’t shoot it well,” Penrod said. “I’ve got to look at things of how we can prepare better, so that in big games like this, we don’t play nervous. I thought we played nervous tonight. We were timid, we weren’t catching the ball cleanly or passing it cleanly, we weren’t picking it up off the dribble cleanly. Everything we did looked a second slow, and like we were thinking about it.”
Southern Wells never put together any kind of run in the second half, while the Cougars continued to shoot well. Lakeland Christian knocked down five triples in the third quarter and extended its lead to 52-24.
Lakeland Christian ended the game 22-of-42 from the field, while Southern Wells was 13-of-49.
The Cougars advanced to the sectional final against Southwood tonight.
Brandon Kirtley topped the Raiders with 12 points.
For the Cougars, Rice scored 15 points, Gause had 13 and Silas Gagnon added 12.
The Raiders ended their season 4-18, and will say goodbye to seniors Austin Harris and Dustin Woodward.
Penrod feels his team showed some progress in the latter half of the season and can build on that moving forward.
“Our first 10 games were rough, but I thought we started taking care of the ball better, taking better shots, and our defense improved a lot,” he said. “We were getting out-rebounded by large margins, and we won a couple rebound battles; we started losing by 4 instead of 12. I thought in our last eight to 10 games we played some pretty good basketball. That didn’t show tonight.”
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LAKELAND CHRISTIAN 64
SOUTHERN WELLS 31
At Southern Wells High School
SOUTHERN WELLS (4-18): Kedrik Sonnigen 3-7 0-0 6, Nick Lozoya 0-0 0-0 0, Dustin Woodward 1-7 0-0 2, Jenson Nusbaumer 1-5 0-0 3, Austin Harris 1-7 0-0 2, Brandon Kirtley 4-12 2-2 12, Andrew Aker 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Pennington 1-1 0-0 2, Tristen Worster 0-0 0-0 0, Perrin Gates 1-1 0-0 2, Quinton Mullins 1-6 0-0 2, Cody Thomas 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13-49 2-2 34.
LAKELAND CHRISTIAN (15-10): Nate Reimink 1-2 2-3 4, Alex Cook 1-2 0-0 3, Seth Martin 2-5 5-7 9, Ben Jackson 0-2 0-0 0, Peter Koller 3-4 0-0 6, Hunter Rice 6-9 0-3 15, Micah Martin 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Stonebraker 1-1 0-0 2, Landon Gause 4-9 2-2 13, Silas Gagnon 4-8 2-2 12. TOTALS: 22-42 11-17 64.
Southern Wells 6 4 14 7 –– 31
Lakeland Christian 21 11 20 12 –– 64
Three-point Goals: Southern Wells 3-21 (Kirtley 2-7, Nusbaumer 1-4, Sonnigsen 0-3, Harris 0-3, Mullins 0-2, Woodward 0-2), Lakeland Christian 9-20 (Gause 3-6, Rice 3-5, Gagnon 2-3, Cook 1-2, Jackson 0-2, Koller 0-1, Seth Martin 0-1). Rebounds: Southern Wells 24 (Harris 7, Woodward 6, Kirtley 4, Thomas 3, Mullins 2, Sonnigsen 1, Pennington 1), Lakeland Christian 28 (Seth Martin 7, Koller 5, Gause 4, Gagnon 4, Rice 3, Jackson 2, Micah Martin 2, Reimink 1). Turnovers: Southern Wells 13, Lakeland Christian 11. Fouls: Southern Wells 17, Lakeland Christian 9. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
