GREENSBURG
The score was tied early in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s winner-take-all Mid-Hoosier Conference boys basketball tilt between South Decatur and Edinburgh.
The Cougars broke through to break the tie in the early in the fourth with a 12-2 run to finally seal the deal and defeat the Lancers, 64-55.
“Our plan all night was 32 minutes of pressure, pressure, pressure,” South Decatur coach Kendall Wildey said. “(Edinburgh) runs their sets, and they finish well. They’ll run with us for a while, and it might be tight at halftime, but we thought eventually that with our stamina that we could wear them down a bit.”
For Edinburgh (16-5, 5-1), a big difference in the game was that South Decatur (12-7, 6-0) converted points off of turnovers, especially in transition.
It was an understandably disappointing night for Edinburgh coach Keith Witty, especially with the Cougars missing one of their top players in Hunter Johnson due to injury. It felt like the opportunity was there for the taking.
“Our goal wasn’t to get into their pace of the game, and we fell into that, and that really hurt us late in the game,” Witty said. “We got away from what we wanted to do, and we didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight, which didn’t help either. We did early, but in that second half, we didn’t shoot it very well. We struggled to keep our composure down the stretch, which we haven’t had this year, and it’s something we got to work on. When we needed a stop, we didn’t get a stop, and it snowballed from there.”
Edinburgh got off to good start with a couple of 3-point baskets from Noah Detling to go ahead 12-4 in the first quarter, but South Decatur finished the first quarter on a 9-3 run to make it 15-13. After Lane Lauderbaugh drove in the lane for a dunk to tie the game, the Lancers then turned up the intensity to go out in front 27-21 following a 3 from Travis Jones.
The Cougars took their first lead with under 30 seconds left in the half with a Lauderbaugh 3 to go ahead 29-27, but Jones then drove the lane in the closing seconds with a bucket to tie the game at 29-29.
The Cougars never trailed for the rest of the game after starting out the second half on a 9-5 run to go up 38-34. Edinburgh finished the third quarter scoring four straight points to cut it to 44-42 before South Decatur took control in the fourth.
Caleb Dewey finished with a team-high 17 points for the Lancers.