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 Class A No. 5 Edinburgh.
The Cougars broke through to break the tie in the early in the fourth with a 12-2 run to pull away for a 64-55 win and finish unbeaten in the conference for the second consecutive year.
“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 fought eventually that our stamina that we could wear them down a bit. I don’t think we wore them down as much as I think. We frustrated them a bit, and I think our half-court defense was good in the second half. They didn’t get anything easy and had to work for everything.”
For the Lancers (16-5, 5-1), a big difference in the game was that the Cougars (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 South Decatur missing second-leading scorer Hunter Johnson, who is out with a broken wrist. Witty 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 out composure down the stretch, which we haven’t had this year, and it’s something we’ve got to work on. When we needed a stop, we didn’t get a stop, and it snowballed from there.”
The Lancers got off to good start with a couple 3-point baskets from Noah Detling to go ahead 12-4 in the first quarter, but the Cougars finished the 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, South Decatur then turned up the intensity to go out in front 27-21 following a 3-pointer from Travis Jones. The Cougars took their first lead of the game with less than 30 seconds left 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 at the break.
South Decatur never trailed for the rest of the game after starting out the second half on a 9-5 run to lead 38-34. The Cougars led 44-38 following a 3 from Lauderbaugh, but Edinburgh finished the quarter scoring four straight points to cut it to 44-42 heading into the fourth.
Lauderbaugh finished with a game-high 18 points for the Cougars. Jacob Scruggs scored 16, Tyler Sporleder added 14 and Chase Boswell had 10.
Caleb Dewey had a team-high 17 points for the Lancers. Detling added 10.
