By MICHAEL CHILDERS, CJ Correspondent
Somerset — Last Saturday night, the Southwestern Warriors traveled to McCreary Central to face the Raiders. The Warriors left Whitley City with a 69-50 loss.
Five days later, at the Wigwam, the same two teams battled it out for the top spot in the 48th District. The Warriors were trying to revenge last Saturday night’s loss. However, Thursday night, was much to the same result, as McCreary defeated the Warriors 46-28. With the win, the Raiders took the top spot in the 48th District and grabbed the number one seed for next month’s District tournament.
McCreary and Southwestern went back and forth in the opening half. However, a 15-0 run by the Raiders proved to be the difference maker in this one.
“I thought the first half was awesome,” exclaimed Warrior head man Dave Schulz, after seeing his club fall to 10-8 on the season. “I thought we played about as well as we could play and went toe-to-toe with them.”
The Raiders opened the contest with a 6-0 run. Sean Privett scored four of the six points.
The home standing Warriors got off to a very rough start. It took quite a while for Southwestern to put a point on the board. Robbie Lewis tallied the first point from the charity stripe with 1:23 left in the quarter.
At the end of the first, the Raiders held a 6-1 advantage over the Warriors.
The Warriors went cold from the field in the opening stanza, going 0 for 10.
One key aspect for Southwestern was the pressure on McCreary Central stand-out Aaron Watts. Watts, one of the 12th Region’s premier players, was held scoreless in the opening stanza thanks to the defense of Cody Epperson.
After missing all ten shots in the first quarter, the Warriors made their first field goal of the game with their first shot of the second quarter. Forty-eight seconds into the quarter Cody Epperson hit a three-pointer.
The other Epperson, Justin, scored, cutting the Raider lead to two points.
Watts found his stroke, hitting a jump shot, giving McCreary a 10-6 lead.
The Warriors received a huge lift from senior Aaron Brown. Brown came off of the bench and nailed back-to-back treys, tying the game up at 12 apiece.
“I thought Aaron Brown did a super job tonight,” stated Schulz.
Things went back and forth for the remaining of the second period.
McCreary’s Zack Roark got an inside bucket to put the Raiders back out front 14-12. Warrior Brannon Bellar then scored on a put back, evening the score back up at 14.
Trailing 16-14, Warrior point guard Tyler Mayer picked off a pass and took it the length of the floor for two points.
Watts responded with a trifecta, giving a McCreary a 19-16 lead.
Justin Epperson netted a shot to get the Warriors within a point.
After a Raider turnover, Mayer navigated Cody Epperson going down the floor. Epperson recived Mayer’s pass and scored on a lay-up, tying the contest up at 19. To make things better, Epperson was fouled on the play, giving him an opportunity to put the Warriors out front. He converted on the old-fashioned three-point play, giving the Warriors their first and only lead of the night at 20-19.
That lead was short-lived, as Watts hit a trifecta from well beyond the arc to give McCreary a 22-20 advantage heading into the locker room at the half.
After holding Watts to a scoreless first quarter, he tallied 12 of his 18 total points in the second quarter.
“I thought we had them a little off balance until Watts hit a couple of three’s,” said Schulz of Watt’s big second quarter. “It gave them a little spark.”
Nonetheless, the Warriors bounced back from that horrendous first period by outscoring the Raiders 19-16.
In fact, the Warriors scored more points in the second quarter than the first, third, and fourth quarters combined. The Warriors tallied 19 points in the second, compared to nine points in the other three periods.
Cody Epperson notched things up at 22-22 with a basket in the opening minute of the third quarter. That basket by Epperson would be the only points for Southwestern the entire quarter.
What happened next proved to be the dagger in the chest for the Warriors. After Epperson’s basket, McCreary would open the flood gates by going on a 15-0 run. The run lasted throughout the remaining minutes of the third period and the beginning of the final period.
Ben Wright nailed a three from the top of the key to get the ball rolling for the Raiders. The Raiders took advantage of two “and one” opportunities to expand the Raider lead to 31-22 advantage.
After turning the ball over on back-to-back possessions, Schulz took a time-out to try to cool down McCreary’s currently 11-0 run. But it would be to no avail, as Wright hit another trey at the buzzer.
The Raiders led 37-22 over the Warriors heading into the final quarter of play.
Aaron Brown concluded the Raiders’ 15-0 run with a lay-up in the opening minute of the final period. The Warriors cut the lead to 37-25 at one time, but McCreary ran the table from then on, winning by a final of 46-28.
“I thought the second half was complete opposite,” said the Warrior head coach. “I thought we were lifeless and uninspired.”
Aaron Watts, despite being held to zero points in the opening quarter, led all scorers with 18 points.
In their last meeting, Watts tallied 21 points while Jacob Dixon scored 24. In this contest, Dixon was held to just six points while Watts had 18.
Schulz was pleased with each of the Epperson brothers’ defensive pressure. “Cody Epperson did an outstanding job guarding Aaron Watts,” explained Schulz. “He battled him the whole time. I thought Justin Epperson did a super job on (Jacob) Dixon.”
Another Aaron, Aaron Brown, led the way for Southwestern with nine points and five rebounds. Brown didn’t even start, but played a tremendous game for the ‘blue and orange.’
The inside play of the Warriors was basically shut down. As of late, it had been Southwestern’s bread and butter, in this contest it wasn’t. Lewis and Bellar were held to five total points the whole night.
“Our bigs struggled in the post tonight,” said the Warrior head coach. “That’s uncharacteristic, that’s kinds of been one of our strengths.”
With the loss, the Warriors have now dropped three straight games but Schulz doesn’t believe there is any urgency in the Warrior camp.
“We’ve got to play with more desire and competiveness,” replied Schulz. “I think if we do that, we’ll be okay. If we come in the gym with a mediocre mentality, then we’re not fine at all. We can beat by anybody with that kind of attitude.”
Things won’t get any easier for the Warriors, as they will face another premier team next week. The defending 12th Region champions, West Jessamine, will travel to the Wigwam on Tuesday night to face the Warriors.
“We will see if we can bounce back on Tuesday night,” concluded Schulz. “We’re going to have a couple of days off, and then we’ll come back and get it done on Tuesday.”
MC 06 16 15 09 - 46
SW 01 19 02 06 - 28
McCreary: Watts 18, Wright 11, Dixon 6, Privett 4, Perry 3, Williams 2, Roark 2
SW: Brown 9, C. Epperson 7, Bellar 4, J. Epperson 4, Mayer 3, Lewis 1
01/16
SW 15 09 12 14 - 50
MC 21 12 19 19 - 69
SW: J. Epperson 16, Lewis 14, Mayer 13, C. Epperson 13
01/19
SW 09 09 08 17 - 43
RC 16 07 14 13 - 50
SW: C. Epperson 13, Lewis 9, J. Epperson 8, Mayer 6, Bellar 4, Brown 3
