Somerset — Before hosting arch-rival Somerset last night in their home finale of the regular season, the Southwestern Warriors said good-bye to five seniors.

However, once the game tipped off, the number the Warriors concentrated on was the number ‘three’.

Seniors Cody and Justin Epperson, Cameron Merrick, Robbie Lewis, and Daulton Marlow suited up for the final time in their prep careers at The Wigwam, and they did a lot of their damage against the Briar Jumpers from downtown beyond the three-point arc.

One of those seniors — Cody Epperson — accounted for half of his club’s three’s for the game, hitting on five long-range bombs in leading the Warriors with a game-high 17 points, and as a result, it was Southwestern once again proving to be too much for Somerset, downing the Briar Jumpers 66-44.

“It was really good to see us shoot the ball like that from the perimeter, because I know we’re capable of shooting it like that,” stated coach Steve Wright, after his club moved to 21-8 on the year with the win.

“We’ve kind of gone through a little stretch here recently where we haven’t shot it real well, but pretty much all year we’ve shot a decent percentage from three,” pointed out the SWHS coach. “I told our coaches the other night on the way home when we left Pulaski that we were going to start shooting the ball better — I just knew that we were going to start shooting it better from the perimeter, because we’ve got too many good shooters on this team.”

In a sign of things to come, Cody Epperson’s first trey of the night extended a 5-2 Southwestern lead very early on out to 8-2, but Somerset would respond.

Ryan Dishman’s trey moments later tied things up at 8-8, but that would be the only tie of the contest in a game that Southwestern never trailed.

Leading the Jumpers 14-10 after the first stanza, Southwestern used a modest, 8-0 spurt midway through the second frame seizing control of the contest, racing out on top of Somerset at the half by a very comfortable 35-18 margin.

And, it was the three-ball that propelled the Warriors to that big halftime cushion.

Cody Epperson, Isaiah Collier, Daulton Marlow, and Justin Schulz all notched treys in that decisive second period, putting Somerset in a quandary at the halftime break.

And, while he tipped his hat to Southwestern for hitting some of those long-range bombs, Somerset head coach Don Daniel pointed out afterwards that he didn’t feel his club made it as tough on the Warriors from downtown as it could have.

“Where the game got away from us tonight was in our transition defense, where we just did not find people, or go out after their shooters,” lamented the Somerset head coach.

“They hit ten three’s tonight, and those were against our man to man, and that was all on open looks because of our transition defense,” added Daniel. “We just did a very poor job tonight of finding their shooters on transition defense.”

Leading Somerset by that 35-18 margin at the half, Southwestern opened up its lead to an even bigger margin — 50-27 through three quarters of play — on a night when the five seniors were certainly going to go out in style in the final game of their careers on their home floor.

Even though he says he only had the privilege of coaching his five seniors for this one year, Wright indicated afterwards just how special a group he feels his senior class really is.

“For me coming in here new this year after being somewhere as long as I was, these seniors have made my transition over here so easy this year,” stated Wright.

“They have been very good to me from the standpoint of making me feel comfortable over here,” added Wright. “I told them that this is their team, and we have communicated on everything that we’ve done, and we’ve grown as close as we can I believe in just one year.”

With the win, Southwestern moved to 21-8 on the season with one final tuneup before next week’s district tournament at McCreary Central High School.

On Friday night, the Warriors will travel to Mercer County to face the Titans at 7:30 p.m.

For Somerset meanwhile, the road certainly doesn’t get any easier for the Briar Jumpers.

Coach Daniel and crew, now 11-12 on the year, will close out the regular season tonight at The Briar Patch with a 7:30 p.m. tipoff against another 12th Regional contender in East Jessamine.

Daniel says that regardless of tonight’s outcome, his club will immediately begin thinking and working on the Casey County game — Somerset’s opponent next Tuesday night at Rockcastle County High School in the opening round of the Boy’s 47th District Tournament.

“Number one, we don’t ever want to forget things, but sometimes you have to be able to put things behind you,” pointed out Daniel.

“We’ve got to put behind what has happened to us in this stretch a little bit, and remember things that we need to get better at and go from there,” said the SHS coach. “Starting Wednesday, everything will be about Casey County and next week’s district tournament.”

For Southwestern, Cody Epperson led the Warriors in last night’s victory with 17 points, while Justin Schulz joined him in double figures by scoring 12 points in the winning cause.

Somerset’s Ryan Dishman led the Briar Jumpers with 14 points coming off the Somerset bench.



SHS  10 8    9 17 — 44

SW   14 21 15 16 — 66



Somerset — R. Dishman 14, Lange 7, Gordon 7, Cheuvront 6, Speaks 4, T. Dishman 2 Weddle 2, Brayden McWilliams 1, Megargel 1

Southwestern — C. Epperson 17, Schulz 12, Edwards 9, Kapinga 9, Lewis 7, Marlow 5, Collier 3, Gaskin 2, Isaacs 2