What J.R. learned: Panthers can be pretty good

By Rex Kirts

The weekend was good for the Panthers.
They tacked on two more wins at home to go to 3-0 and extend their regular season winning streak to 47. Bedford North Lawrence went down with a fight, 71-65, on Friday and Evansville Harrison, 66-51, on Saturday.
Streaks were a big part of both games. The Panthers blazed out to a 25-11 first-quarter lead on Bedford and started the third quarter against Harrison with a 14-0 run.
It was a good weekend because both opponents were quality teams. So what did coach J.R. Holmes learn from the action?
"We can put some spurts together when we're playing pretty good," he said. "When we're working as a team and getting our passing game going we're pretty good."
AND DOES the coach of the state's No. 2 ranked team have any concerns at this early date?
"Our subs have got to score a little bit," he said. Though not big scorers, he admits his primary bench players - Michael Bower, Alex Forney and Trae Washington - are good battlers.
Lack of height could become a problem against some teams, and sometimes the Panthers' shooting gets a little cool. But the team scraps hard, fights on the boards and can play some pretty good defense, such as against Harrison when it had 13 steals and against Bedford when it did a solid job ionside against big Alex Pritchett.
And sometimes South's shooting gets quite hot, such as hitting 8 of 10 to start the third quarter to put Harrison too far down to rally from. All five starters scored in that quarter.
A consistent asset in the three games has been the tremendous play of Dee Davis on both ends of the court. As always, he's worth the price of admission, and any basketball fan shouldn't pass up the opportunity to see him before he heads off to college.
Davis got things rolling against Bedford with two steals that led to baskets and a nice feed to Joey Forney on a fast break. Davis was definitely "on" that game, and the 25 points he scored put him over a 1,000 for his career.
"I DON'T KNOW what 1,000 means," Davis said Saturday. "It doesn't mean as much as winning the state championship. It's just points. Still, I'm pleased."
South started the Harrison game flat, which is sort of understandable after Friday night's big crowd atmosphere with Bedford. The Panthers started the game in the hole 7-0 before loosening up and scoring 11 straight points. But Harrison came back late in the second quarter with a couple of 3s, and South led only 30-26 at the half.
"We had to come out with a lot of energy in the third quarter," Davis said. They had so much energy that they overwhelmed Harrison.
"We saw they were wore out, so we kept running the ball. That's our game," Davis said.
In the three games Davis is averaging 20.6 points and several assists and steals.
Against Bedford, the Panthers struggled after their quick start, primarily because their shooting fell off. They were 8 of 20 in the second half. It took a strong effort to hold on for the win.
"We got off to a great start," Spencer Turner said. "In the second quarter they pressured us more.
"BUT DEE DID a great job of running the game. Bower had some nice steals, and Dee. I think our defense is what really won it."
Turner, the owner of nice, high, long 3-pointers, has scored consistently, getting 18, 18 and 20 for an 18.6 average. He runs the floor nice, too, and gets his share of rebounds.
"Bedford was a really good teaching tool for us," Holmes said, "to understand momentum. You could see momentum changing, and we needed to play better defense and take the spring out of their legs."
The Panthers have another doubleheader next weekend. They host Southport in the Conference Indiana opener Friday and travel to Terre Haute North on Saturday. They're the unbeaten conference champions the last three years.