By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – It’s the little things that make a big difference in the outcome of a basketball game. The Spring Garden Panthers certainly found that out in their season opener and Levi Hatcher’s debut as head coach on Tuesday evening against Faith Christian.
Missed layups, a 6-of-16 performance from the free-throw line for the game, and the absence of big man Jacob Welsh to a knee injury proved costly for the Panthers, but they still made a game of it in a 50-46 setback.
“We didn’t look very gelled. We were discombobulated a little bit, but I felt like that started to change as the game progressed,” Hatcher said. “We kind of settled in and did some good things on the defensive end. I thought our defense was really good in the second half, but we just couldn’t capitalize on it (offensively).”
Faith Christian (5-2) went on a 7-0 run early and led 20-8 late in the first quarter, thanks to three Thomas Curlee 3-pointers.
But as Hatcher said, the Panthers (0-1) picked up the pace as the game progressed. They went on a 15-6 run in the second quarter, capped off by a last-second basket by Chapel Pope to trail 26-23 heading into the break.
The Lions went on a 7-2 run early in the third quarter to stretch their lead back out to six at 33-27, but the Panthers battled back to cut their deficit back down to three after three quarters at 40-37.
Faith Christian built a 48-40 lead with just under five minutes to go in the game, but Spring Garden battled back again to cut the deficit down to three at 49-46 with 17.9 seconds remaining on a basket by Jon Marq Rogers. The Panthers had several chances to pull even closer down the stretch, but couldn’t manage to get over the hump.
“Every time we would get within two, we’d make a couple of sloppy mistakes, and it’s back to seven,” Hatcher said. “We missed two wide open breakaway layups because we’re looking over our shoulder thinking they’re going to block our shots. A couple of those layups go in, and we don’t throw the ball away out of bounds, and we make some free throws, this could be a different ball game.”
But the good news for the Panthers is Hatcher feels all those mistakes are correctable.
“I’m proud of the effort,” he said. “I thought they hustled well. There were a lot of good things, but there are a lot of things we need to fix. I think once the guys see it on film and we address those things at practice, I think we can clean up a lot of those mistakes, which in a four or five-point game, that’s the difference.”
Connor Bates led the Panthers with 13 points. John Welsh added 12 points. Rogers tossed in nine points, and Cam Welsh connected on a pair of treys to finish with eight points.
Curlee sank five treys in the game and finished with a game-high 27 points for Faith. Yashua Averalo tallied nine points and Eli Robinson had seven points. Conner Richerzhagen finished with six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
Spring Garden looks to rebound on Thursday at Handley.
