Southern falls short in regional semifinal against Malvern
By: Caiel Woody
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOUB) – The Southern Tornadoes and the Malvern Hornets met up in a regional semifinal playoff matchup. Fans from both sides started filling every seat as the clock ticked down to game time, and these boys were ready to play.
Both teams came out ready for a fight, as the first quarter got physical immediately with each team getting multiple fouls. Scoring was back and forth for all eight minutes, but Malvern would inch their way to an 11-10 lead at the end of it.
Scoring picked up in the second quarter as the teams scored 34 points all together. The Hornets went in managing to outscore the Tornadoes offense 20-14, not only keeping their lead, but managing to put just a little more cushion on it going into halftime up 31-24.
Coming back out of the locker rooms both teams ramped up in physicality, seemingly every possession came with a foul. Malvern was only held to 7 points the whole quarter and Southern put 12 more on the board for themselves as the Hornets offense stalled. Despite having struggles on offense Malvern was able to stay on top taking a 38-36 lead into the final quarter of play.
Nearing the end of regulation the Hornets offense would find their footing again, yet neither team could stay in the lead, and both teams would end up tied 48 all at what was supposed to be the end of the game. These boys took the game to overtime with an aggressive shootout that could not be decided in just four quarters,
In overtime it seemed like there would never be an end to this game as the back and forth only continued, but after a big time three pointer from Tripp Tucci, and an untimely Tornadoes foul, Grady Barkley went up to the free throw line with two attempts to his name leaving it with 2 more points awarded to Malvern. Southern tried one last attempt at scoring which did count but they still fell 58-56 to a persistent Hornets team.
All game Southern kept feeding the ball to Reed Brinager, who was able to use his skill and size to score 12 of Southern’s 24 points in the first half. Brinager became a clear benchmark that helped keep his team in the game, he was able to be a force on both sides of the ball all game. Ending the game with a double-double getting, 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 steals, being both an unstoppable force and immovable object.
For the Hornets they had some players that the Tornadoes had to put a stop to. Starting with Grady Barkley, he had 17 points and was everywhere his team needed him to be on offense, the pair of Jaxon Jones and Delonte Simmons were able to get boards, steals, and assists that controlled the possession of the game, while getting the ball into scoring hands.
The one man band of the Tornadoes is what spelled their downfall, because when Brinager got shut down so did the whole team, whereas Malvern was able to diversify their offense through multiple channels rarely having the same scorer back-to-back. This became detrimental as the game winded down to its final seconds and was a big part of this Southern loss.