It's a simple tenet, but good things happen when your basketball team takes the ball to the basket.
Top-ranked South Medford lost that concept for about eight minutes on Friday, but head coach Dennis Murphy wasn't about to let the Panthers get too off track.
Murphy gave his team a "gentle" reminder during halftime of the Southwest Conference matchup with Grants Pass, and the local boys took it from there.
With junior point guard Michael Harthun pushing the pace, South Medford pulled away in the second half from the game Cavemen for an 88-54 victory in front of a capacity crowd.
"Coach told us at halftime we weren't pushing the ball well, so I just tried to come out and take it to the basket a few times to get the tempo going," said Harthun, who scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half. "Once we got the tempo going, we were a lot better."
Advertisement | |
Despite shooting 31 percent in a perimeter-based second quarter (5-for-16), South Medford connected on 56 percent of its shots from the field overall (32-for-57) and turned up its defensive intensity to hold GP to 28 percent success in the second half (7-for-25).
"When you play South, you're playing with fire," said Grants Pass coach Scott Gottula. "You can kinda stay close for a little bit, but it's just a matter of when they decide they're tired of toying with you. They're like a cat with a ball, when they get tired with you they'll just bat you into the next row."
South Medford (19-1, 10-0 SWC) opened a 12-2 lead in the first quarter, capped by a nifty steal by Van Dellenback-Ouellette, pass to Harthun and immediate pass off the backboard for a dunk by Singler.
The Panthers built their advantage to 17-4 moments later, but the Cavemen (4-15, 1-9) rallied to trim their deficit to 21-11 on an excuse-me 3-pointer at the buzzer by Buddy Saxon. Saxon, who finished with a team-high 16 points, was caught in no man's land having already picked up his dribble as the clock wound down but created enough space to launch the shot.
South seemed undaunted by the basket and opened a 30-13 lead with 4:31 to go in the second quarter. Gottula then called his fourth timeout of the first half — teams get five for the game — to rally his troops and they responded with a 14-9 run to close the second quarter.
The Panthers played into that run by failing to make a field goal over the final three minutes of the first half, missing five 3-pointers and another 15-footer over that span as their lone attempts.
"The only thing you can do is, with what we're wanting to run defensively, hope that some guys would miss shots for South, and in the second quarter they did," said Gottula. "We were able to do some things offensively and get some opportunities because of that."
Unfortunately for the Cavemen, that was the last bit of help the Panthers would give on Friday night.
"The way the game was going was slow and we really had to try to break out of that," said Dellenback-Ouellette, who had five rebounds, three assists and three steals. "In the second half, I think we did a better job of getting to the basket. We were settling for some early jump shots in the second quarter and that let them dictate the pace of the game."
And when you want to turn up the tempo, there are few guards better at that in the Northwest than Harthun.
"Mike's faster than everyone with the ball in his hand when we're all sprinting dead-on down the court," added Dellenback-Ouellette. "That definitely helps."
E.J. Singler added 10 points and five rebounds for the Panthers, while Jon Grimes had six points, three rebounds and another fine defensive outing.
The lone downside for South, which won its 12th straight, was an injury sustained by Dylan Anderson with 55 seconds to go in the first quarter. Kyle Singler collided with Anderson while each was trying to deny a shot in the paint, and the 6-2 senior did not return to the game as a precautionary measure.
GRANTS PASS (54) — Saxon 16, Carpenter 9, Z. Morgan 8, P. Morgan 8, Wiersma 7, West 4, Dolmage 2, Garrett 0, Davidson 0. Totals: 18-47 14-18 54.
SOUTH MEDFORD (88) — K. Singler 33, Harthun 26, E.J. Singler 10, Grimes 6, DeCoste 3, Dellenback-Ouellette 2, M. Singler 2, Granger 2, Boyd 2, Duran-Chaparro 2, Anderson 0. Totals: 32-57 18-20 88.
Grants Pass 11 16 8 19 -- 54
South Medford 21 18 26 23 -- 88
3-point goals — Grants Pass 4-12 (Z. Morgan 2, Saxon 1, Wiersma 1), South Medford 6-15 (Harthun 3, Grimes 2, K. Singler 1). Fouled out — P. Morgan.
JV score — South Medford 65, Grants Pass 45.
Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, or e-mail khenry@mailtribune.com
