The South Greene boys basketball team finished off District 2-3A play on Friday night with a dominant performance that led to a 77-27 win over Chuckey-Doak in front of a packed house on senior night.
“I felt like I got a pretty good effort from everybody, and it was a good senior night,” South Greene coach Terry Hoese said. “We got to recognize those seniors and get out of here with a win. It’s been a good season, and I’m proud of these guys. Now we have to finish out against some tough opponents and be at our best going into the district tournament.”
With the win South Greene finishes District 1-2A play with a 9-1 record and will be the No.2 seed in the upcoming district tournament.
The night started with South Greene jumping in front 9-0 in a run that was capped by senior Micah Shelton sinking a three-pointer from the corner. Shelton made his first career start on Friday and made the most of it by scoring six points and giving the Rebels some sound defense.
“It was especially good to get Micah out there,” Hoese said. “He hasn’t played much, he didn’t play varsity as junior. But he likes being a part of the team and he has worked his tail off. To see him come out tonight and have some success was great. I’m very proud of him.”
Chuckey-Doak got on the board when Gavin Crum sank a jumper from the elbow, but by the close of the quarter the Rebels were in front 18-2. Chandler Gamble scored on a short jumper and a dunk. Jace Roderick scored the final points of the period when he threw up an alley-oop attempt to Gamble that instead fell through the rim for three points.
South Greene did not slow down in the second quarter and by the midway of the second quarter the lead had reached 34-2. Gamble scored eight points during the run and Shelton sank another three-pointer.
Crum scored again almost eight minutes after his first shot fell through, but South Greene’s lead reached 40-4 at the 2:29 mark when Charlie Lane sent a pass ahead to Roderick for a layup.
South Greene’s biggest lead of the first half was 47-6 after Will Arrowood took a steal the other way for an easy two points. Chuckey-Doak’s Ryland Grindstaff beat the buzzer with a three-pointer that narrowed the margin to 47-9 at halftime.
Chuckey-Doak picked up the scoring in the second half with Grindstaff, Crum and Blake Lippard all connecting from behind the arc in the third quarter. But the Black Knights still had no answer for South Geene’s offense.
By the midway point in the period Arrowood got to the rim for a layup that put the Rebels on top 55-15. Gavin Dyer closed the third quarter with a pair of triples for South Greene as the lead grew to 64-21.
With the clock running in the fourth quarter Hoese had the opportunity to bring his seniors out of the game one-by-one to a great applause from the home crowd. On the floor Lane, Trey Gentry, and Alex Leon all knocked three-pointers as the lead grew to 50 points at the final buzzer.
Gamble led all scorers with 18 points while 11 different South Greene players entered the scoring column. For Chuckey-Doak Crum finished with 13 points.
“We’ve talked over the last week about getting back to where we were at the first of the year with four od five guys getting into double figures,” Hoese said. “I’ve tried to preach about the importance of assists and tonight we were looking for each other.”
