No. 5 Southern boys control third quarter in 71-53 rout of Keyser

OAKLAND — No. 5 Southern led 35-28 at halftime, then out-scored Keyser 24-4 in the third quarter to take command, leading to a 71-53 rout on Tuesday at Ram Arena.

"Tough first half, we got into foul trouble early," Southern head coach Hunter Broadwater said. "Thought our juniors stepped up in the second quarter, played really good minutes for us. We went into the half with a lead, came out, had a lot of energy in the third quarter."

The Rams (3-1) opened the quarter on a 16-2 run led by Graham Harvey's 11 points.

"Obviously, we're disappointed with a lot of things," Keyser head coach Scott Furey said. "Effort, execution and outcome. Those two things coming together usually equal the third. So we're definitely disappointed with our effort on the defensive end and on the offensive end."

Southern scored eight points off six turnovers, including the final play of the frame.

"We're missing shots from two or three feet," Furey said. "When I called timeouts, all I kept saying was we're back to basic basketball just beating us. We're turning the ball over, we're not rebounding the ball, we're missing easy shots.

"All of that is from third grade on. There's no magic, I could call a timeout every play and draw up another play, doesn't matter. If you're not putting it in the bucket or turning it over or not rebounding missed shots, we're not gonna win."

Will Dixon recorded a steal, then Alec VanSheetz sent a backdoor pass to Harvey for a dunk.

Harvey finished with 20 points, six assists, two blocks and a steal while VanSheetz added nine points, four assists and three steals.

"He worked a lot on his game in the offseason," Broadwater said of Harvey. "He's doing some good things for us right now. Defensively, he's done a really good job, most of the time guarding the best player."

The Golden Tornado (1-2) out-scored the Rams 21-12 in the fourth quarter led by Trey Dawson and Braylon McGreevy with eight points each.

Dawson topped Keyser with 19 points and a block while McGreevy finished with 15 and three blocks.

Keyser struggled with turnovers in the first half, committing six each in the first two quarters.

"I told our guys, I don't think we played very strong with the ball at times," Furey said. "We're more of a finesse-type team, and that's fine. But you still have to take care of the basketball. Sometimes it seems like we're too finesse and we don't take good care of the basketball."

The Tornado finished with 18 giveaways, but Southern failed to capitalize.

The Rams forced 12 in the first half, but only scored 10 points off of them.

"We had some people in there that aren't used to being in position to take shots," Broadwater said. "We had a chance to score and when we didn't get to the rim, we didn't score very well."

Keyser held an 18-16 edge after one quarter led by Dawson's seven points and McGreevy's five.

Southern scored 19 in the second quarter while allowing 10.

Jacob Brown scored seven of his game-high 22 points in the second, also adding nine assists and two steals.

Braden Lucas added 10 points and two steals.

The Rams won the junior varsity game 46-32 led by Landon Whitehair's 19 points.

Benjamin Mele led Keyser with nine points.

The Rams head to No. 1 Mountain Ridge (2-0) on Friday at 7 p.m.

The Golden Tornado return home on Tuesday to face Hampshire (0-3) at 7:30 p.m.

"We gotta get a lot better to go against a regional opponent," Furey said. "What it comes down to is the coaches in our region vote where you're seeded. So even if this didn't go well here, it's not nearly as important as those head-to-head regional, me-against-you games that are gonna determine where you're seeded."