Edinburgh’s reign as sectional champion came to an end Tuesday night.
The culprit, South Decatur, used a nearly flawless first half to build up a 14-point lead that held up well enough for a 52-45 win over the host Lancers in the opening round of Class A sectional play.
Despite the raucous home crowd, the homecourt proved no advantage for Edinburgh, which saw its once-promising season end prematurely at 13-10.
“We knew this was going to be a challenge,” Edinburgh coach Keith Witty said. “I thought we put ourselves in a major hole in the first half. For whatever reason, I thought we were a little intimidated, and it’s hard to come back on good teams in this environment when it’s one and done.”
The Lancers started the year with very high hopes, ranked No. 2 in the Class A poll. But a four-game losing streak late in the year was one of the low points, culminating in the loss to the Cougars.
And it was nearly a carbon copy of the loss the Lancers suffered at the hands of South Decatur back on Jan. 7, when the Cougars trounced the Lancers by 17 points.
In that game, the Lancers shot a paltry 35% from the field while the Cougars blistered the net at 66%.
The Cougars (13-11) started out well again, taking the lead and never surrendering it despite a furious Edinburgh rally late.
South Decatur was nearly perfect in the first quarter, hitting on six field goals and free throws to take a 20-14 lead; that cushion swelled to 14 points by the half.
The biggest obstacle for Edinburgh were 6-foot-6 junior center Dorian Hacker, who frustrated the Lancers with his rebounding and scoring. That obstacle was removed midway through the third quarter when Hacker picked up his third foul.
Edinburgh took advantage and cut it to seven, 40-33, but it could have gotten even closer.
“We didn’t shoot well,” Witty said.
The Cougars got the lead back up to 11 before the Lancers finally got a spurt together and cut the lead to three, 48-45, with 2:13 remaining. Edinburgh had a chance to draw closer, but a very ill-timed turnover and foul allowed the Cougars to stretch the lead to five on a pair of free throws by senior Dale Peters.
Edinburgh couldn’t score again.
The Lancers were led by sophomore Connor Ramey, who had 15 points. South Decatur’s Jacob Scruggs also had 15 for the Cougars.
Edinburgh’s comeback attempt impressed Witty.
“We battled back and gave ourselves a chance,” Witty said. “You look back on things that could have been different, like making a shot here, stopping one there, and the outcome changes.
“I want to thank our seniors. They had only 20 losses in three years (53-20 overall) and were outstanding. We return three of our top seven players and have a good JV team coming up. We’ll see how things pan out.”
