Rough fourth quarter haunts Cats

By Andy Brown
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Updated: February 24, 2015

Brady Lambeth goes up for a shot earlier this season. Lambeth and the Wildcats fell to Spring Hill 57-47 on Friday in Spring Hill after the Broncos outscored Louisburg 21-10 in the fourth quarter.

SPRING HILL – It was right there for the taking, but the Louisburg boys basketball team lost a hold of what could have been its second straight win.

A bad fourth quarter haunted the Wildcats on Friday as they fell to Spring Hill 57-47 in Spring Hill. Louisburg held the lead for much of the game, but the Broncos went on a 21-10 run to end the game and halted any momentum the Wildcats had going into the final week of the season.

“For three quarters, we played pretty well,” Louisburg coach Jason Nelson said. “We were assertive, got good looks, limited turnovers and controlled the glass, but we encountered a little adversity in the fourth that changed our mentality and we weren’t able to recover.

“We missed a couple bunnies, and they came down and hit two contested 3’s. We lost confidence and they gained confidence and didn’t look back. It’s part of being such a young team with leadership and experience on the bench with injuries in Corbin (Wertz) and Mitchell (McLellan), but I feel like all of our sophomores have progressed in their absence.”

One sophomore has in particular.

For the second game, Grant Harding reached the 20-point mark as he nearly finished with a double-double. Harding scored 20 points, including three 3-pointers, and pulled down nine rebounds.

The Louisburg sophomore has been more assertive as of late, especially with Wertz, the team’s leading scorer, still out with a leg injury.

“We’ve expected Grant to become a dominant force since we first saw him last year and we’re seeing his evolution in the present,” Nelson said. “He has such good court awareness and ability to reach the rim that as he gets older and more experienced, he’s only going to get better.

“In addition to leading by example, he’s becoming a leader on the court. He has grown in the past few weeks as we’ve asked him to do more on the court, both physically and verbally in Corbin’s absence.”

Louisburg (5-13) jumped out to a slim lead in the first quarter and took a 27-22 lead into halftime. The Wildcats held a 37-36 lead into the fourth quarter before the Broncos went on a run.

Along with Harding, senior Nathan Moore provided the team with a much-needed scoring punch as he finished with 12 points. Another sophomore, T.J. Dover, added seven points and six rebounds in the loss.

The Wildcats have a tough week to close out their regular season as they travel to De Soto tonight before returning home Friday for senior night against rival Paola. Tonight’s tipoff in De Soto is set for approximately 7:30 p.m.

“One of my goals for the last two weeks of the season has been to get all our sophomores some quality minutes to see how they respond and to give them something to build towards for the summer and the future,” Nelson said. “We’ve done that and we’re seeing our guys continue to improve.

“For this last week, our goal is to get Corbin back to his pre-injury shape, and continue to see the growth of our sophomores and continued high level of play from Grant, Nathan and Brady (Lambeth). If everything falls into place, we are capable of going on a run.”

LOUISBURG 10 17 10 10 – 47

SPRING HILL 7 15 14 21 – 57

LOUISBURG (5-13): Grant Harding 7-15 3-6 20; Nathan Moore 4-6 4-6 12; T.J. Dover 3-6 1-2 7; Jayce Geiman 1-2 0-0 3; Korbin Hankinson 1-2 0-0 3; Sam Guetterman 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 17-36 8-17 47. 3-point field goals: 5, (Harding 3, Hankinson, Geiman)