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WALTON - Manchester High School's varsity boys basketball team made runs at Southwood in the final three quarters of Tuesday's first round game of the Cass 2A Sectional, but it was the seven points it trailed by after the first quarter that made the difference.
The Squires trailed 17-10 after the first eight minutes of play and eventually fell 68-61, finishing their season with an 8-13 record.
"I was disapointed in the way we defended," said Manchester coach Gary Goshert, whose Squires haven't advanced to the sectional championship in the three-year history of the multi-class state tournament. "That (seven-point deficit) got us behind the eight ball and had us playing catch-up all night. We made five or six runs but we couldn't get over the hump. This was not one of our better games. They kind of outworked us a little."
The win improves Southwood's overall season record to 12-9.
Said Southwood coach Steve McClure: "This is a classy county rivalry. It'd be nice to celebrate this for a few days. Cass is very impressive on this floor."
Southwood will meet Cass, who topped North Miami 75-52 in Tuesday's first game, Friday at 6 p.m.
The two teams played to a 13-13 tie in the second stanza, with the Knights clinging to a 30-23 lead at halftime. Southwood built its lead to 11 at the 6:42 mark of the third quarter after consecutive steals and baskets by senior Levi Perigo and junior Brian Bassett boosted the score to 34-23.
Rather than folding at that point, the Squires responded with an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit to three, 34-31. Junior Klay Bechtold sparked the Manchester run with consecutive three-pointers.
"Manchester would not go away," said McClure. "We couldn't deliver that knock-out punch. They (Manchester) played with tremendous character. Gary Goshert is a tremendous coach. That's the downside of coaching, defeating people like that. You just have to line them up and go at it."
Bechtold finished the game with nine points, all on three-pointers. Senior forward Lee Shafer was the only Squire in double figures with 12 points. Anthony Sorg and David Bazzoni added nine points each, while seniors Gary Young and Chris Lochner added seven and six points, respectively.
Southwood, which lost to Manchester 64-39 earlier in the season, was led in the scoring column by Perigo who finished the game with 15 points and was 7 of 9 from the charity stripe in the final frame. The Knights also got 13 points each from juniors Brandon Ehret, Brady Eltzroth and Shawn Zellers. Eltzroth and Zellers also combined for 17 rebounds, the number of boards the Squires tallied as a team.
"We knew that was no indication of what was going to happen tonight," said Goshert of Manchester's defeat of Southwood during the regular season. "We knew it wasn't going to be like that. They were physical and strong inside and we didn't block out at times. We just weren't sharp."
Southwood outrebounded the Squires 33-17.
Two free throws by the 6-foot-4 Zellers pushed Southwood's advantage to 52-46 with 4:26 remaining in the game, but again Manchester made its move. Shafer made good on two free throw attempts and junior Anthony Frieden nailed a three-pointer, cutting the lead to 52-51.
But as the Knights did the entire game, they were able to connect on their free throws. Four free throws each by Perigo and Ehret bumped the lead to eight, 59-51, with 1:36 left to play.
Southwood, which was whistled for 14 fouls, was 14 of 17 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter and 23 of 28 for the game. Manchester, which committed 22 fouls, was 7 of 9 from the free throw line for the game.
"We didn't have enough people playing both ends of the floor," said Goshert. "We worked our fannies off. It's not because we didn't try, because we did try."
SOUTHWOOD 68 MANCHESTER 61
Manchester (8-13) 10 13 18 20 - 61
Southwood (12-9) 17 13 15 23 - 68
Manchester FG FT R S Pts.
Bechtold (G) 3-8 0-0 0 1 9
Shafer (F) 4-11 4-4 8 0 12
Stoops (G) 1-1 0-0 1 1 2
Lochner (C) 3-8 0-0 1 0 6
Sorg 4-4 0-0 1 1 9
Young 3-6 1-3 2 0 7
Frieden 1-1 2-2 1 0 5
Miller 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Bazzoni 4-9 0-0 0 0 9
Kerr 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 24-49 7-9 17 22 61
Southwood FG FT R S Pts.
Perigo (G) 4-6 7-9 1 2 15
Bassett (G) 1-4 0-0 2 2 2
Wright (F) 0-1 0-0 2 0 0
Zellers (C) 4-10 5-6 8 1 13
Eltzroth (F) 4-7 5-5 9 3 13
Ehret 3-5 5-6 2 1 13
Dawson 1-3 0-1 1 0 2
Marshall 3-5 0-0 4 1 7
Hoffman 1-1 1-1 0 0 3
Totals 17-36 23-28 33 9 68
Three-point goals - Manchester 4 (Bechtold 3, Frieden 1), Southwood 3 (Ehret 2, Marhsall). Turnovers - Manchester 13, Southwood 11. Fouls - Manchester 22, Southwood 14. Fouled out - Frieden.
Game 1 score: Cass 75, North Miami 52
