Miners finish with 11-0 run to slip past South

Feb. 24—For Class 2A No. 6-ranked Linton, to get challenged the way Terre Haute South pushed the Miners on Tuesday at South is manna from heaven.

For the Braves? Though the win they were seeking eluded them in the final minutes in a 58-48 defeat, to do the challenging could give them a window towards some late season success.

Linton finished the game with an 11-0 run, the kind of toughness coaches love. Lincoln Hale scored 16 of his game-high 27 points in the final quarter, including nine in Linton's game-ending surge.

"That was almost a mirror image of the game here two years ago where we gave up a double-digit lead," Linton coach Joey Hart said. "South is only a big dude away from being a really good basketball team. They made us work and our kids showed some resiliency and composure."

Linton's fine finish didn't diminish the effort South made it making it a game in the first place. South fought its way out of a 10-point third-quarter deficit with a 16-2 run to take the lead in the final period, an advantage the Braves would have as late as the 2:49 mark.

"Our kids really fought hard. We had a good defensive night. Brylan Apholone's efforts to stay in front of Lincoln Hale? He made it hard for him. He made some big shots, but he made him work for it. It was a fun game, but unfortunately, we were on the wrong end of it," South coach Maynard Lewis said.

Linton grabbed an early six-point as the Braves missed their first six attempts from the field. A Brylan Apholone 3-pointer broke the dry spell and South had the measure of the rest of the first period, trailing 10-8 by quarters' end.

The second quarter was an entertaining and mistake-free series of punches and counter-punches. South tied the game twice.

Linton struggled to get clean looks, but mitigated that by working the boards to good effect. Linton also used its size to gain a slight edge. The bigger Miners trapped the Braves with a big lineup in the middle of the quarter. Though it didn't lead to any turnovers, it did take South out of its rhythm. The Braves only scored three points in the final 4:44 of the first half as the Miners increased their advantage to 23-17 by halftime.

There were only four turnovers combined in the opening 16 minutes.

A pair of Joey Hart 3-pointers early in the third period seemed to put the Miners (19-4) on the path to victory. Linton increased its advantage to 10 midway through the quarter and held sway for the balance of the period.

However, South's Cortez Hanes hit a 3-pointer at the end of the period to cut Linton's lead to 39-31. Little did anyone know it was the spark that morphed the game into a tight fourth quarter battle.

Hanes' 3-pointer was the first of four in a row for the Braves. Braden Turner hit two in a row to cut Linton's lead to two. After an Apholone layup tied it, Amari Richardson drilled a 3-pointer at the top of the key with 5:26 left to give South its first lead.

The turning point might have come for Linton when it went back to its trap after a Hale bucket midway through the period. Just as it did in the second quarter, Linton forced South out of its rhythm.

"Our length got them out of playing downhill. They weren't getting the same quality threes [after the trap]," Coach Hart said.

An Amariyae Wilson steal and layup at 2:49 put South in front for the last time, but the Braves wouldn't score again. Hale both tied the game and gave Linton the lead for good with a fall-away jumper. After he converted the shot, South turned it over on the inbounds pass and a technical foul was called in its aftermath. Hale made the pair of technical free throws to put Linton up 53-48 and Josh Pyne hit two more on the possession gained via the South turnover. That sequence effectively ended the game.

South (4-18) has been under-sized all season against most foes, but Lewis felt South was its best when it attacked the basket. He wants to see more of it.

"We have to look to attack the basket. We did that in the second half and fought back, but we have to do it for four quarters," Lewis said. "Go north-south instead of east-west. It's tough, and no we don't have size we desire, but we have kids with big hearts and we have speed. We have to use our speed to our advantage to get easy buckets."

Both teams are back in action for their regular-season finales Thursday. South added a game at Riverton Parke. Linton hosts North Putnam.