By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

SPRING GARDEN – For almost three quarters, the Spring Garden Panthers were cruising along against youthful Sand Rock on the basketball court Tuesday night. They were up by 18 after three quarters.

But the breathing room the Panthers thought they had dwindled late. Even with foul trouble and a size disadvantage, the Wildcats managed to force Spring Garden coach Levi Hatcher to put his starting five back in late to finish out the game.

John Welsh scored a game-high 22 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, in leading the Panthers to a 45-30 victory.

“That bunch is scrappy, they’re hard-nosed, and they get after it. There’s no quit in them,” Hatcher said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. They stayed after it the whole 32 minutes and they clawed their way back into it. I felt like we kind of took our foot off the pedal a little bit. It was almost like we’ve got this lead and we’re good. You can’t have that mentality. They (Sand Rock) don’t have that mentality.

“We need to make sure when we’re playing teams we are leading at the end of the game that we don’t get passive and give them a chance to get back into it. Number one, that’s a bad mindset, and No. 2 that’ll catch up with you somewhere down the road where it determines if you keep your season going or you’re done.”

Sand Rock coach Nick Traffanstedt was proud of how the Wildcats fought down the stretch.

“They got to the paint, but when you’re little, it’s hard to draw fouls and to get that positioning,” Traffanstedt said. “Spring Garden is really physical. They’re big and they’re strong, so it’s hard to get in the paint on them. I was proud of them for getting some paint touches, but we’ve got to do a better job of moving the ball around a little bit. We’re young so we don’t see the court as well as we should, but it’s coming. I think those guys will see that. They did in the fourth quarter. We moved the ball really well there. That’s why we cut the lead at the end to 13, but it’s going to take time for us to get all the way there.”

Spring Garden (12-3) led 11-6 at the end of the first quarter and built a 29-14 advantage by halftime. The Panthers pushed their lead to 37-19 after three quarters before Sand Rock made a dent late.

Eighth grad point guard Ty Traffanstedt led the Wildcats with 13 points. Freshman guard Jonas Browder added nine points – all on 3-pointers in the second half.

“They’ve got mostly guards, but their guards are physical. You like to see that from your guards,” Hatcher said. “Our guards are physical as well. I do like how we matched their physicality. We didn’t shy away from anything. It got a little physical there, but neither team backed down. You like to see teams who get after it. I like a physical game.

“I felt like defensively we kind of controlled the game for the first three quarters. I felt like the guys did a good job sticking with the game plan. John and Jake (Welsh) did a good job of anchoring on the backside. It was a complete team effort. Everybody stuck with their roles. Defensively I didn’t have a problem with anything we did. They scored some late because our offense let them, but defensively I like where we were.”

Cole Bailey added nine points for the Panthers. Jake Welsh finished with eight points.

Spring Garden hosts area rival Jacksonville Christian on Tuesday. Sand Rock hosts area rival Collinsville on Friday.

Girls

Spring Garden 54, Sand Rock 37

SPRING GARDEN – The last time Sand Rock and Spring Garden met on the basketball court, the Lady Wildcats were more concerned on the offensive end, trying to keep up with the Lady Panthers’ pace.

The result was a 28-point setback.

On Thursday, in both teams’ first game of the new year at Spring Garden, the Lady Wildcats were more defensively driven. They trailed by a point at the end of the first quarter and seven late in the second until an Ace Austin 3-pointer put the Lady Panthers up 10 at halftime.

Spring Garden managed to wear down Sand Rock in second half to take a 54-37 victory to improve to 16-1 on the season. Sand Rock dropped to 12-6.

“We really set a goal to keep them in the low 60s scoring,” Sand Rock coach Lisa Bates said. “We know the caliber team they are, so we just set little goals for ourselves and didn’t stress too much on details. We know what tremendous scorers they are, but we just really tried to work on us.

“This game we tried to work on our defense and our rebounding. We’ve been watching film and I don’t let them watch offense. I let them watch only defense. We focused on us instead of them this game and I feel like we played harder.”

Part of Bates’ strategy was to put freshman guard Peyton Johnson on Austin, an Alabama commitment. Austin led the Lady Panthers with 23 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists, six blocks and two steals.

“Ace is phenomenal and it’s tough for anybody to guard her, but I wanted her to get to experience what that type of speed is, what that kind of athleticism is,” Bates said. “I thought she had a really good game and played hard and got to see what that kind of player is.”

Austin had just four points in the first quarter, which the Lady Panthers led 12-11. She added nine more in the second including, as Bates said, a 3-pointer before halftime to put Spring Garden up 27-17 at intermission. The Lady Panthers held a 42-29 edge after three quarters.

Chloe Rule added 12 points, four rebounds and two steals for the Lady Panthers. Libby Brown sank three treys and had 11 points to go along with four rebounds and an assist. Olivia Law finished with six points, seven rebounds, four steals and an assist.

Johnson led Sand Rock with nine points, six rebounds, an assist and a steal. Zoey Handy had eight points, eight rebounds and an assist. Kaitlyn St.Clair also scored eight points to go along with seven rebounds, three assists and a steal. Kennedy Henderson managed five points, six rebounds, an assist and a steal. Chloe Stephens finished with five points, three rebounds and a steal.

“I think tonight was a good step in the right direction,” Bates said. “We never want to lose, but you’ve also got to be realistic, and that was a step in the right direction for us on defense.”