By ANDREW FEEBACK
The season got off to a bumpy start for the Southern Wells boys basketball team Tuesday night as they fell to the visiting Lakewood Park Christian Panthers 72-48.
A private school located near Auburn, the Panthers made the long trek south and brought with them a vicious full-court press that had Southern Wells out of sorts from the opening tip.
“We had known we would face a press in our next game, but we weren’t expecting so much this game,” coach Doug Smith said. “We had been working on a press-break, and honestly, our guys just didn’t execute.”
The Panthers were up 7-0 before the Raiders even got a shot off. Wyatt Yoder’s three-pointer broke the ice for Southern Wells nearly four minutes into the game, at which point the Raiders trailed 13-3.
Southern Wells had 10 turnovers in the first quarter as Lakewood Park relentlessly pressured and trapped. When the Raiders managed to get the ball beyond half-court, there were usually still multiple defenders waiting to swarm the ball.
“Our team is really inexperienced, and they experienced some panic at times,” Smith said. “We’re only going to get better.”
The Panthers’ Davi Freitas led all scorers with 25 points while big man Avery MacFarlane added 17. The combination of Freitas’s outside shooting and MacFarlane’s inside play was too much for the Raiders. Freitas made five triples on the night while MacFarlane grabbed 15 rebounds.
Southern Wells trailed 43-21 at the half, but the third quarter was probably the Raiders’ best stretch in this game. They connected on 8-14 from the field and put together an 8-0 run early in the second half.
But a lengthy scoring drought to start the fourth allowed the Panthers to stretch their lead to 67-41.
Landon Johnson led the Raiders with 23 points, while Wyatt Yoder had eight and CJ Reber added seven.
Although it was a rough game, Smith wants his team to learn and grow from it.
“My biggest takeaway is that we just need to take a deep breath, look at what we did, and see the little things we can do to improve,” he said.
Southern Wells will host Southwood Saturday night.
Lakewood Park took the JV game 46-43. For the Raiders, Hunter Durham scored 15 points, Adam Aulbach added 12 and Joshua Aulbach chipped in eight.
LAKEWOOD PARK 72,
SOUTHERN WELLS 48
At Southern Wells
LAKEWOOD PARK (1-0): Madden Knox 0-1 0-0 0, Curtis Born 0-0 0-0 0, Davi Freitas 9-21 2-2 25, Caleb Shirar 0-0 0-0 0, Avery MacFarlane 5-14 7-10 17, Noah Carnahan 0-0 0-0 0, Carson Houser 3-5 2-4 9, Will Nolot 6-9 1-2 15, Garrett Black 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Nixon 2-5 0-0 6. TOTALS: 25-55 12-18 72.
SOUTHERN WELLS (0-1): Trey Slusher 0-1 0-0 0, Levi Woodward 0-2 2-2 2, Wyatt Yoder 3-10 1-2 8, Rugar Holmes 0-2 0-0 0, CJ Reber 3-12 1-1 7, Landon Johnson 9-15 3-3 23, Joshua Aulbach 3-5 0-2 6, Adam Aulbach 0-0 0-0 0, Hunter Durham 1-3 0-0 2, Jaxon Casterline 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19-50 7-10 48.
Lakewood Park 23 20 15 14 – 72
Southern Wells 8 13 20 7 – 48
Three-point Goals: Lakewood Park 10-27 (Freitas 5-12, Nolot 2-4, Nixon 2-5, Houser 1-3, MacFarlane 0-2, Knox 0-1), Southern Wells 3-16 (Johnson 2-7, Yoder 1-5, Holmes 0-2, Durham 0-2). Rebounds: Lakewood Park 31 (MacFarlane 15, Nixon 4, Nolot 3, Freitas 3, Carnahan 3, Knox 1, Born 1, Houser 1), Southern Wells 22 (Aulbach 7, Johnson 4, Yoder 4, Woodward 2, Reber 2, Casterline 1, Slusher 1, Holmes 1). Turnovers: Lakewood Park 16, Southern Wells 23. Fouls: Lakewood Park 15, Southern Wells 16. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: Lakewood Park 46, Southern Wells 43.
