Spartans shoot past Gators for 78-67 home win
Published 1:04 pm Saturday, January 18, 2025
South Warren’s boys’ basketball team rocked Greenwood with a quick flurry of 3-pointers, then punished the Gators in the paint for a 78-67 victory Friday night in a District 14 matchup.
“It’s a like a cliche for me — I talk about how District 14 is like SEC football, there’s never an easy night,” South Warren coach Carlos Quarles said. “Greenwood’s a really good team, so I’m just proud of my players’ effort tonight.”
The host Spartans trailed 18-14 early in the second quarter when Camden Page touched off a rally with a 3-pointer. Jace Jarvis followed with another and Griffin Rardin drilled a long trey as part of a 13-2 run that ended with South Warren (12-5 overall, 1-2 district) leading 27-20 with 4:02 left in the first half.
Greenwood (12-5, 0-3 district) trimmed that deficit back to one and trailed by six at 38-32 by halftime.
Despite that second-quarter success from 3-point range, the Spartans shifted the attack inside with a deadly combination of drives, offensive putbacks and layups off run-outs downcourt. South Warren shot 12-of-16 from the field over that eight-minute stretch, with all of those made shots coming right under the goal.
“They knew to look up the floor and they share the basketball with each other,” Quarles said. “So it’s a joy to watch when they handle our game plan and execute the way they’re capable of playing. We try to play with a pace, but we try to play under control.”
Brandon Perkins’ layup off his steal pushed South ahead 63-48 heading into the fourth quarter.
“They had a young group in and we tried to take advantage of that,” Spartans senior forward Thad Hall said. “We tried to run the floor, got wide-open layups and got separated from there.”
Greenwood battled back, with senior Asher Pettus scoring inside to set off 8-0 run that got the Gators back within six points at 67-61 with 4:11 to play.
Hall ended that surge by going up strong for a bucket inside. Then after Greenwood’s Kash Simpson hit a pair of free throws to cut it back to six, Bryce Button hit 3-of-4 from the line over the next two trips and the Gators faded with just one more field goal over the final three minutes.
“When you don’t drop your chin and sprint back on defense against a team that likes to play in transition, they’re going to figure that out because they’re a smart, smart basketball team,” Greenwood coach Will McCoy said. “They know their strengths and they play to them really well. They did that tonight. They were a little more physical, they were a little more tough. They were well-prepared tonight.
“I’ve got to look in a mirror, the guys have got to look in a mirror — you can’t just completely lose faith in what has been a great season so far, but this one is a gut-check test. We’re going to find out real quick in the next couple of games how we’re going to turn after this one.”
Pettus was just shy of a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds for the Gators. Garrett Hatcher and Nick Simpson added 15 points each.
Hall and Button paced the Spartans with 14 points each. Jaxen Decker added 12 points and Rardin had 10.
GHS 16 16 16 19 — 67
SWHS 14 24 25 15 — 78
GHS — Pettus 20, Hatcher 15, N. Simpson 15, K. Simpson 8, Meador 4, Troutman 3, Sisson 2.
SWHS — Button 14, Hall 14, Decker 12, Rardin 10, Perkins 8, Shively 8, Willis 6, Jarvis 3, Page 3.
GIRLS
Greenwood 29, South Warren 27
Visiting Greenwood scored the game’s final 10 points to erase an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter and stun District 14 rival South Warren 29-27 on Friday.
Down 27-19 after McLaine Hudson’s layoff off her steal put the Spartans up eight, Greenwood (8-7, 2-1 district) regrouped after a time out midway through the fourth.
Eighth-grader Anzlee Hendrix hit back-to-back 3-pointers to fire up the rally.
“She’s a special, special player and she’s only an eighth-grader Greenwood coach Terrance Williams said of Hendrix, the Lady Gators’ point guard. “As she continues to learn and get better, she’s going to be really, really good. She listens and she wants to be good is the best part about it.”
Gracyn Nealon’s two made free throws pulled the Lady Gators even at 27-all with 1:59 to play, then Savannah White hit the go-ahead basket on a pull-up jumper in the paint with 39 seconds to play.
South Warren (5-11, 1-2 district) went scoreless over the final 6:47 of the game. The Spartans were 0-for-4 from the free-throw line in the fourth and 10-for-21 overall.
“I never felt like we got completely engaged in the game, and I think that was partly because of Greenwood’s game plan — coach does a really good job with his team and they played really hard,” South Warren coach Lane Embry said. “They got physical with us early and we didn’t like it very much. We shot a lot of 3s early and I didn’t think we followed the game plan as well as we could have.”
Hendrix led Greenwood with 13 points and White added seven.
Hudson also had 13 points to pace South, with Averi Fugate adding nine points and nine rebounds.
GHS 7 3 8 11 — 29
SWHS 4 10 8 5 — 27
GHS –– Hendrix 13, White 7, Nealon 4, Spidel 3, Tandy 2.
SWHS –– Hudson 13, Fugate 9, Calvert 2, Lindsey 2, Strow 1.
