All agree, team play is the key

By Rex Kirts

Everyone agreed, team play is the best way.
Team play had gone into hibernation in recent weeks, reaching lows the past two games. It resurfaced in Saturday's sectional championship game against Columbus East, and the Panthers were sharp all around on their home court in a 66-34 win.
Now the Panthers (22-2), winners of three straight sectionals, travel to Seymour Saturday to play New Albany (16-7) at 10 a.m. in the first game of the regional. Terre Haute North (18-7) plays Castle (21-2) in the second game.
South beat New Albany, 65-39, in the season opener at New Albany. But New Albany was a young team without its best player, Chris Whitehead, who is back now and playing well.
BEATING NEW ALBANY this time will require another team effort like the Panthers had in the opener and in the sectional title game, like they had most of this season until the recent slump.
After scraping by North in the first game of the sectional Friday, coach J.R. Holmes had a long private chat with is ball club. Holmes rarely has long talks after games.
"That was the maddest I've ever seen him," senior center Desmond Marks said after cutting down the nets Saturday night. "We were told we had to play better as a team."
The Panthers listened and then did as they were told. Against East they shot 50 per cent from the field, 70 per cent at the free throw line, won the boards by a whopping 33-13, committed just 11 turnovers to 20 for East, had a bunch of assists and limited East to 36 per cent shooting.
Senior wingman Spencer Turner started hot, stayed hot and destroyed East in the first half. He hit five 3-point shots and scored 19 points in the first half, outscoring East by himself (South led 34-15).
"We played so well as a team," Turner said. "Dee (Davis) and Des and Ben (Stowell) were finding me. It's so much better to come outand get a team win.
"DEE IS THE BEST POINT GUARD in the state. He had a flip pass back to me and a screen on the same play!"
Davis was all over the place, with 14 points, three rebounds, six assists and five steals. Sort of a typical all-sports package for the senior.
With the 14 points (in only seven shots) Davis moved into fifth place ahead of Chris Lawson on the all-time Monroe County scoring list. He has 1,495 points and trails Garrett Butcher (1,820), Sean May (1,664), Jon Holmes (1,536) and Duany Duany (1,532).
"We did a great job," Davis said among numerous well-wishers. "We came out with a lot of energy and had great support from the fans. We closed it out right.
"We played more like a team tonight. Spencer came out hot, and we found him. We had a lot of defensive pressure."
Senior forward Joey Forney had a solid game, with six points and five rebounds.
"It helps when you have great players like Dee and Spencer," Forney said. He did a good job of letting the game come to him.
"THE DIFFERENCE from last night," Forney said, "was we just shared the ball and were running our sets, being patient and finding the shot we wanted."
"We played as a team," Marks said. He played fewer minutes than the others because he picked up two fouls in the first minute of the game and his third later on in the first quarter. Michael Bower and Alex Forney did some good things in relief of Marks, who had four points.
Senior guard Ben Stowell scored six points and came up with some loose balls.
"It was a good game to be able to bounce back as a team," Stowell said. "We didn't have much flow last night.
"We all seemed to be pretty tired after the first quarter. Then we didn't seem to hit anything."
Holmes had to be relieved at the finals' performance before another good crowd.
"They did a good job of finding Spencer when he was hot and then Dee when he got hot," Holmes said. "We had good ball movement.
"I thought we defended well and hit some shots. It was a better team effort both offensively and defensively."
HOLMES SAID Davis was getting people involved against East's 1-3-1 zone that had given other teams trouble.
"The difference from Friday was that we played together,"Holmes said. "We found people better, moved the ball better."
Asked about his post-game speech after the North game, Holmes smiled and said, "We had a little talk last night."
And Saturday that translated into another sectional championship.