South Decatur’s Colby Rathburn, left, and Jacob Scruggs, right, try to stop Edinburgh’s Connor Ramey Wednesday at Edinburgh.
Rob Baker | For The Republic
EDINBURGH — After watching Edinburgh drain four 3-pointers in the first quarter and build a 12-point lead Wednesday night, South Decatur coach Maurice Buckner switched out of a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone.
The Lancers went 3 for 20 the remainder of the game from 3-point range, and the Cougars rallied for a 44-38 win in the opening round of the Edinburgh Sectional.
“We changed up some of our defense, which was the biggest key to us winning this basketball game tonight,” Buckner said. “We tried a little bit of 2-3 in the first half. They started to expose the corners, and the the early fourth quarter is when we dropped out of the 3-2 and went back to a man.”
South Decatur (11-13) advances to face Waldron in Friday’s semifinals.
Wednesday’s battle was a game of runs. The Lancers (11-11) led 8-7 when Connor Ramey scored the first nine points in an 11-0 run that gave them a 19-7 lead with 6:20 left in the first half. The Cougars answered with a 14-2 run to close the half, then scored the first basket of the second half to regain the lead at 22-21.
Edinburgh then went on a 10-2 run to go back on top 31-24 with 3:20 left in the third quarter. From there, South Decatur outscored the Lancers 20-7 the rest of the game.
“I told these guys, ‘We’ve got time. Don’t panic. Let’s do what we’re supposed to do,’” Buckner said. “Obviously, being the first sectional game, you’ve got kids with butterflies being nervous, whatever the case. But coming into the second half, we took their biggest punch, and we were still there. So we were confident coming into the second half.”
The Cougars held Edinburgh to three points in the fourth quarter, that coming on a Ramey 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining that cut the lead to 42-38. But Jacob Scruggs got loose for a basket with 11 seconds left to ice it.
“All those guys on the court played team defense,” Buckner said. “We talked about eliminating the ego. It’s not one person’s fault, it’s everybody’s fault when we don’t capitalize on the defensive end, but we were able to do that.”
“Give South Decatur credit,” Edinburgh coach Devin Burton added. “They made in-game adjustments. They went to a zone, and that kind of threw us off our game for a little bit, changed the tempo of the game. We had some shots not fall that I’m confident we normally put in, so that was difficult for us.”
Scruggs finished with a game-high 23 points and seven rebounds to lead the Cougars. Colby Rathburn scored nine points, and Taylen Absher added six points and seven rebounds.
“We grew as a team, and we got better,” Scruggs said. “We haven’t been hitting from outside like that all season, and to show that we can come back like that is huge. We prepared all week for something like that. We came out, and we got hit in the mouth and we came out and hit them in the mouth. It just shows that we’ve grown as a team.”
South Decatur committed only five turnovers, with just one of them coming in the second half.
“We really just put all egos aside,” Scruggs said. “That’s something we talked about before the game. We’re one unit. We’re a team. There’s no one coming out there trying to do everything on their own. We all have a role out there, whether you score 20 points or two points. Everyone filled their role tonight.”
Ramey led the Lancers with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Rylan Londeree added 10 points.
“I can’t fault our guys’ effort,” Burton said. “They played until the end. They played their butts off and did everything we asked them to do all week. We just came up a little short. If we had a shot or two go in here or there or a 50-50 ball bouncing around on the floor, if we get, that game could look different.”
While six of the seven Cougars who played are seniors, Edinburgh had only one senior on its roster. Austin Brockman scored five points in his final game as a Lancer.
“We have a great group coming back,” Burton said. “We have eight juniors returning next year that are going to play a huge role. 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.”
