By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – Shortly after Spring Garden boys basketball coach Levi Hatcher was making his way to the Panther locker room Saturday following their 92-43 victory over Faith Christian in the Class 1A, Area 12 tournament, Spring Garden principal Brian Clowdis said as Hatcher was passing it was one step closer to 1,000 wins for him.
Clowdis, of course, was joking with Hatcher about Lady Panther coach Ricky Austin’s milestone victory earlier in the evening.
“Only about 875 more steps to get there,” Hatcher said.
But the only milestone Hatcher is concerned with for the time being is helping the top-ranked and undefeated Panthers (28-0) win another area championship.
Spring Garden will battle Donoho for that milestone on Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Falcons earned their berth in the area championship after defeating Jacksonville Christian 55-47 in Saturday’s other tournament semifinal.
It took a little bit for the Panthers to shake the Lions on Saturday. After all, it had been eight days since their last game, while Faith had just beaten Gaylesville the night before.
Spring Garden was up 30-20 after one, but a 23-5 run by the Panthers in the second quarter left no doubt who the victor would be.
“Offensively we had a sense of urgency about us, but defensively I thought we kind of had a few mental lapses there,” Hatcher said. “They (Faith) made some plays, made some tough shots, but we missed a few assignments from not playing. I think finally after the first quarter we kind of hit our stride and got our feet back under us. Our defense picked up for us, and that led to a lot of offensive run outs and things like that.”
John Welsh led the Panthers with 30 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Connor Bates tossed in 18 points, including four 3-pointers in the first quarter. Jacob Welsh posted 14 points. Zane Edwards came off the bench and added 10 points, including a pair of treys. Jaylen Brown finished with eight points.
Parker Robertson topped the Lion scorers with 12 points including a pair of 3-pointers. Colin Anderson added nine points. Dylan Rogers had seven points. Toby Ricard scored six points and Colton Reese finished with five points.
