Carmel can't hit the bucket, South's Christmas delight is 8-0 record

By Rex Kirts

Carmel isn't that bad, and South isn't too shabby, either.
A decent-sized South crowd, but almost nobody from Carmel, saw Carmel disintegrate completely in the Panther gym Tuesday night. It was weird to see a team as solid as Carmel fail to make a single field goal in the second and third quarters.
And it wasn't as if the Greyhounds were putting up a lot of stupid shots. On the contrary, they were getting good looks. But all of a sudden they couldn't hit a barn with a shotgun.
Carmel made 7 of 10 shots the first quarter but only three field goals the rest of the game. South overcame slow shooting start itself to run off with a 63-39 win.
THAT MEANS the state's No. 2 ranked Panthers have earned an 8-0 record for a Christmas present. They have now won 52 straight regular season games.
The Panthers were a little too lethargic the first quarter, and their shooting was off. They fell behind 17-12, with Carmel going the length of the floor in the last five seconds of the period to score on a layup.
That was Carmel's last field goal until just over six minutes left in the game. Wow!
South went on a 25-3 run in the second and third quarters for a 37-20 lead, and the game was over.
In addition to playing itself out of the game with poor shooting (10 of 36 for the game) Carmel turned the ball over 19 times. Panther hands were everywhere, slapping the ball away from the Greyhounds.
"WE STARTED SLOW," Dee Davis said. "Our shots weren't going in. But we played really good defense the entiere game."
Davis scored 16 points, three behind Joey Forney, who had 13 of his 19 in the fourth quarter. Spencer Turner added 14 points.
"At halftime I thought if we just started hitting our shots we'd be OK," South coach J.R. Holmes said.
The shots started falling. The Panthers shot Carmel out of its zone in the third quarter and continued to hit against a very physical man-to-man.
"We started getting inside the zone for 19-foot shots. In the first half we were at the 25-foot mark," Holmes said.
THE SOUTH COACH liked a lot of things, including his defense.
"Our defense was good. We helped out in the post. Des (Marks) really battled," he said. "Dee was very consistent. Joey is starting to shoot better. I thought Alex (Forney) and (Michael) Bower were great off the bench."
Following the break to pay homage to Santa Claus and the credit cards, the Panthers will compete in the Hall of Fame tournament at New Castle on Dec. 30.