The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
SOUTH CHANGES COURSE AT OPPORTUNE TIME
Seven losses among South’s first nine games of the 2019-20 season wouldn’t inspire confidence outside the Rebels’ locker room.
Coach Doug Barber had talent on the roster but most of it lacked experienced, which showed in four losses suffered by five points or less. Only junior Will Hagwood and senior Rico Small entered the year having played meaningful varsity minutes.
Two weeks after a loss to Bedford, South is on the verge of pulling back to .500. A 66-49 victory at Euclid marked the Rebels’ fourth consecutive victory behind Hagwood’s 14 points, who led a group of four players to reach double figures.
“We’ve just been maturing,” Hagwood
said. “We started out, we were really young this year so it started off a little slow. As the season’s gone on, we’re all coming together and the chemistry’s getting better.”
South improved to 6-7 as its victory at Euclid followed triumphs against rival North, Cornerstone Christian and Kenston. Six-footeight senior Bobby Helt scored 13 points, junior Tyree Talley added 12 and Small chipped in 10.
The Rebels built an early lead and went ahead, 19-11, when a pair of Helt’s layups sandwiched a 3-pointer from Jason Salillari. Talley knocked down a pair of foul shots and Helt added another bucket to push South’s lead to 12, 23-11, early in the second.
Marquis Lewis came off the bench to record an andone layup, then dunked after a steal to bring the Panthers back within seven, 23-16. Michael Patterson’s 3-point kept Euclid’s deficit at seven, 32-25, at half.
Small scored eight of his 10 points in the third. The Rebels went back up by double digits, 44-32, when Talley sank his third 3-pointer as he was fouled and converted the fourpoint play at the foul line.
South led by 14, 49-35, at the end of the third and opened the fourth with a 13-4 run. Helt tipped in a lob off the backboard from David McClain to give the Rebels their largest lead, 62-39.
A balanced offensive effort was backed by another solid defensive game, the area in which South has taken its largest strides. When the Rebels lost two- or three-possession games earlier in the season, the defensive lessons Barber tried to preach began to resonate.
“We worked hard in practice on it,” Talley said. “It was really bad at the start of the season, but it’s starting to come a lot better. We were just lazy, but Coach has been on us about it. We’ve been getting it done.”
Hagwood and Talley lead a talented junior class. Once players elevated from last year’s junior varsity team understood the additional degree of toughness and defensive tenacity required at the varsity level, South’s trajectory began to rise.
“It took a little bit to figure it out, but the kids go in and they know what’s expected of them,” Barber said. “They’re playing great as a team right now, and I couldn’t be more happy for them because at 2-7, they could’ve packed it in, called it a year.”
Patterson led the Panthers with nine points as Euclid fell to 4-8. The Panthers have lost six straight games after a strong start to the season.
Coach John Kane was disappointed in his team’s energy against South. Although Euclid lost by 24 at Medina, Kane thought the Panthers played hard — a trait the team needs to demonstrate in each game.
“I don’t think the score of the Medina game reflected our effort,” Kane said. “I think the score of the game tonight reflected our effort. We’ve got to learn how to play hard on a consistent basis.”