By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CEDAR BLUFF – It’s been a month since Spring Garden’s football season ended in the second round of the Class 1A state playoffs, but the Panthers have managed to turn the page to basketball quite nicely.
Just like their undefeated regular season in football, the Panthers have gotten off to an undefeated start to their basketball season following a 71-49 victory at Cedar Bluff on Monday, which improved their record to 8-0.
Senior guard Connor Bates led the way for Spring Garden by connecting on six 3-pointers and finishing with 23 points.
“We were not at all happy where it ended with football, but we knew we had to flip it over to basketball,” Bates said. “I know we can make a deep run and maybe even win it this year. I think we flipped our mindset very quickly to get in a basketball state of mind, and I think that’s what’s helped us.”
Of course it also helps the Panthers to have five seniors returning from last season’s 27-5 Northeast Regional final team.
“This core group has really been the face of the varsity for the third year. I didn’t expect anything less from them, and I don’t think they expected less from themselves either,” head coach Levi Hatcher said. “I think last year gave us a lot of confidence, making it as far as we did, but it also made us hungry too. We don’t want that to be the end result this year. We want to look further this year.”
So far so good.
The Panthers jumped out to a 19-9 advantage against the Tigers (4-7) on Monday evening, aided by two treys apiece from Noah Barber and Bates.
“You could tell he had confidence tonight,” Hatcher said of Bates. “When the ball was hitting his hands, he was really looking to be aggressive with his shot, especially when Jake (Welsh) is lined up on his side. You feel that presence. A lot of teams want to sag in and worry about that.
“If you’re going to be open, we tell them to shoot it. We’ve put a lot of time and a lot of shots on the gun. That’s just a lot of hard work coming to fruition there for them.”
Spring Garden’s lead swelled to 34-19 at halftime before the Tigers made a 6-0 run early in the third quarter to make it a 34-25 game.
However, Bates’ fourth trey with just under five minutes to go in the third pushed Spring Garden’s lead back up to 12 at 39-27, and it help set up the inside game for Jake and John Welsh the rest of the way. They both scored 16 points. John Welsh also grabbed 13 rebounds, while Jake secured 12 boards.
“We knew we have a pretty good inside presence. We’ve got guys who drive it well, but just being able to knock down some outside shots, we should be able to create more driving lanes and maybe we can soften up the inside a little more so we can go inside out,” Hatcher said. “Luckily this year we’ve got three or four guys on the outside who we are very confident in making a shot. They’ve proven that in practice.
“We make sure to stress in practice when you shoot, it needs to be game shots. It’s not just where you’re shooting it. It’s not how you’re shooting it. It’s being in the right position before you catch it. The guys have really bought in.”
“When they’re hitting on the outside, they’re tough to beat,” Cedar Bluff coach Johnny Amison said. “But it’s not just their offense, it’s their defense as well. They make it tough on you to score. After a while, they get comfortable on offense because they’re shutting you down and then they’re able to score.”
To Amison’s point, no Cedar Bluff player reached double figures in scoring. Shon Gleen and Keondre Wynn led the Tigers with nine points apiece. Hunter Stallings and Zach Jones both finished with eight points.
“We did not shoot the ball well today. We couldn’t hit a shot,” Amison said. “I’m trying to get our guys to understand that we can’t let shot-making dictate how we play. When we’re not making shots, it affects our defense. I’m trying to get them to understand if we play solid defense and get easy shots, then you’ll score a little better, but a lot of it is their defense too. Their defense made us miss a lot of shots.”
Cedar Bluff looks to rebound in area play at home against Gaston on Tuesday. Spring Garden hosts Sand Rock on Thursday.
