Southview wins NLL road game

Shaun Joplin glides in for two points as Southview inproved to 2-0 in the Northern Lakes League with a victory on the road at Bowling Green. The Cougars are 2-1 overall.

The Blade/Andy Morrison
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Shaun Joplin glides in for two points as Southview inproved to 2-0 in the Northern Lakes League with a victory on the road at Bowling Green. The Cougars are 2-1 overall.

BOWLING GREEN Southview s first Northern Lakes League road test sent the Cougars to Bowling Green, a place where visitors have found the going difficult in recent years during Von Graffin s coaching tenure.

The Bobcats kept it close with the Cougars for a half before Southview the team favored to win the NLL slowly pulled away for a 72-55 victory.

Southview freshman Allen Gant came off the bench and scored a game-high 21 points to lead four Cougars in double figures. Tim Hausfeld scored 17 points, including three 3-pointers, while Jimmy Hall added 12 and Andy Borcherdt 10.

Gant, a 6-foot-2 forward, scored seven of his points during the third quarter when the Cougars (2-1, 2-0) began to pull away from the Bobcats.

Gant finished a 9-2 run early in the third quarter by making a pair of foul shots to give Southview a 45-32 advantage with 5:18 left in the period, which was their largest lead up to that point.

Gant s contribution impressed his coach, considering the Cougars have spent less than a week of practice time together since the end of football season.

Allen had 21 tonight and it looked pretty effortless, Southview coach Marc Jump said. He s a great kid. He s got a very good head on his shoulders. I think he sees spacing and he sees things that are available.

I think he s a wonderful basketball player.

Patrick Graham paced BG with a team-high 18 points while Chauncey Orr came through with 16 points and nine rebounds in a losing cause.

The Cougars outscored the Bobcats 21-13 during the decisive period third quarter. Southview closed out the quarter with a comfortable 57-43 lead and held on to a double-digit edge for the remainder of the night.

Graffin said keeping an eye on Hausfeld and Borcherdt were primary concerns for the Bobcats, who wanted to limit the Cougars from getting comfortable shooting from theperimeter.

The contributions by Gant and Hall in the Cougars frontcourt are not something the Bobcats had quite anticipated.

Bowling Green s Tony Dible tries to drive by Southview s Jimmy Hall during the second quarter.

He s a pretty good athlete, Graffin said of Gant. He ran over us a couple of times when we played it right because he s going to drive it at you. The Hall kid, too.

There s a reason Jim Tressel was at their school the other day. Guys lose jobs for not getting guys like that. They re pretty athletic.

The Bobcats were guilty of committing 21 turnovers while the Cougars were guilty of 11.

Graffin credited his team for not quitting even when the Cougars built their lead and were able to stay on top.

We played hard and competed and played well together, Graffin said.

The Cougars went ahead by as many as eight points in the first half but the Bobcats were able to hang around and not allow the lead to increase to double digits before halftime.

Gant and Hausfeld scored 12 and 10 points, respectively, before halftime to lead Southview. Graham had 13 before intermission.

Bernard Pinckney added a team-high eight rebounds for Southview.

Contact Donald Emmons at:demmons@theblade.comor 419-724-6302.