The Edinburgh bench reacts after the team forced a South Decatur turnover.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
Connor Ramey and Edinburgh owned the first quarter on Wednesday night. Jacob Scruggs and South Decatur, though, got the last word by owning the fourth.
The visiting Cougars pulled out a close win on the Lancers’ home court for the second time this season, holding the home side scoreless for the first 7:35 of the fourth quarter and climbing out of a seven-point hole for a 44-38 victory in a Class A sectional opener.
“We had some shots not fall that I’m confident we normally put in there,” Edinburgh coach Devin Burton said. “That was difficult for us, but you can’t fault our guys’ effort. They played ‘til the end, they competed their butts off. They did everything we asked them to do all week. We just came up a little bit short.”
Down 35-32 after Edinburgh’s Austin Brockman ended the third quarter with a layup, the Cougars (11-13) took over in the fourth. Scruggs, who finished with a game-high 23 points, hit a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to one, tied it with another at the 4:22 mark and hit one more with 3:34 left that put South Decatur in front for the first time since the opening minute of the second half.
A third-effort putback by Taylen Absher grew the Cougar advantage to 38-35, and Scruggs and Colby Rathburn tacked on two free throws apiece to up the margin to seven. Ramey hit a 3-pointer with 24.9 seconds left to end the Lancer drought, but by then the outcome had been all but settled.
“Give South Decatur credit,” Burton said. “They made in-game adjustments; they went to a zone, and that kind of threw us off our game a little bit and changed the tempo of the game.”
The Lancers (11-11) were up by one early before Ramey went on a personal 9-0 run. He scored the last seven points of the first quarter, including back-to-back 3-pointers, and then opened the second with a pair of free throws and an assist on a Lucas Seegers layup that stretched the lead to 19-7 with 6:17 remaining in the half.
But the Lancers then went six minutes without a point, allowing the Cougars to get back into the game with eight consecutive points. Rylan Londeree broke the Edinburgh drought in the closing seconds, but South Decatur answered with a Taylen Absher 3 and a late turnover led to two Jacob Scruggs free throws with 1.1 seconds on the clock, trimming the margin to 21-20 going into the locker rooms.
A steal and layup by Scruggs off the opening possession of the third quarter briefly put South Decatur on top by a point, but Londeree answered with a 3-pointer from the right corner to give the Lancers a 24-22 edge. Londeree later hit another 3 and added a layup off a steal to push the lead to 31-24 with 3:18 to go in the period.
Ramey led Edinburgh with 17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in defeat; Londeree (10 points) was the only other Lancer to score more than five.
Though he returns an experienced crew next winter, including eight seniors-to-be, Burton’s focus after the game was on the one player he will lose, senior Austin Brockman.
“We’ve got a great group coming back,” the coach said. “We have eight juniors returning next year that are going to play a huge role, and we’ll be an even better team next year, I believe. But tonight was all about Austin. I’m not thinking future; I want to pay our respects to him. He’s been a part of our program for the past four years and just been a staple, and everything we need out of him, he’s done. It’s been a long journey, and he’s been just a steady hand the entire way.
