9-1 a good start; schedule challenging ahead, too

By Rex Kirts

In the first half of the season, South's opponents combined for a 53-26 record. Three of them, Bedford, Terre Haute North and Warsaw, suffered their only loss to South.
Against that schedule, coach J.R. Holmes gladly accepts the Panthers' 9-1 record.
Naturally, he wouldn't have turned down 10-0, either. But Center Grove is no slouch (8-2) and proved it by knocking South off in the championship game of the Hall of Fame Classic.
In double overtime.
And coming from behind at the end of regulation and the first overtime to stop the Panthers' 53-game regular seasson winning streak.
THE PANTHERS will try to start another streak Friday when it hosts city rival North.
Actually, the Panthers still have a couple of winning streaks intact. Still active are long winning streaks at home (39) and in Conference Indiana (26). One other streak is alive Friday - South has beaten North nine straight times.
Though winning big, South hasn't been quite as dominating this season as in recent years. Part of that is the schedule, part a little less overall quickness, part a little less height. The shooting is down just a bit, too, and there have been lapses of several minutes that have let the opposition rally.
But 9-1 is outstanding. Good basketball savvy, an ability to get tough when needed and good balance have been the driving forces.
It helps having a player the caliber of Dee Davis, of course. He's averaging 22.5 points, 5.0 assists and 2.7 steals per game. The senior point guard worked a lot on his 3-point shooting in the summer and has improved tremendously, hitting 45 per cent of them and 56 per cent overall.
SPENCER TURNER'S 3-point shooting fell to 33 per cent after a 2 of 13 performance against Center Grove, but he's sveraging 15.7 for the season. Turner started slow on 3-pointers last year, too, but picked it up the second half.
The rest of the starting unit is contributing well. Ben Stowell jacked up his average to 9.8 with a career best 24 points against Center Grove, Desmond Marks has been steady at 9.2, and Joey Forney averages 8.8.
That's a solid starting five production, and it needs to be because there is minimal scoring from the bench.
"We're doing some things well," Holmes said, "to stay in games. We have surges of defense to stay in games." And the offense does a little surging of its own frequently.
Two things the Panthers can do the rest of the way is improve on the perimeter on both defense and offense. They are hitting 34 per cent on 3s to 41 for the opponents.
South is busy coming out of the holiday break, playing three games in eight days. After North, the Panthers host Columbus East on Tuesday and travel to Edgewood next Friday.