NEW LEBANON — Even though his team has tripled its win total from last year, Ryan Innis says his Twin Valley South boys’ basketball team is still going through what he calls the “process.”
And this past weekend was another learning curve as the Panthers dropped a pair of games, including a key Western Ohio Athletic Conference game at Dixie on Friday, Jan. 21.
The host Greyhounds used an 8-1 run to start the second half and held on to hand the Panthers a 56-51 setback. On Saturday, South fell behind 27-17 at the half in a 54-45 loss to Middletown Madison.
“I said it’s a process. Things don’t change overnight. You don’t go from winning three games to hanging banners,” Innis said. “It’s a process. It’s a total buy in. You’re going to have highs, going to have lows, you’re going to have good days and bad days. You just have to find how to stay consistent and, you know, try to weather the storm and fight through adversity. And we’re a young team and that’s what I’m trying to teach these guys down the road, for the future, is how to fight through those good and bad days and stay more consistent.”
Against Dixie, Jandon Ankrom led the way with 13 points and nine rebound. Grant Ulrich added 11 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Cole McNinch added 11 points to go along with three rebounds and two assists.
”This is a local rivalry. Obviously, now with Dixie coming into the new league,” Innis said. “They play a lot of energy, they feed off of each other. So, number one coming in, we knew we had to come out and meet that intensity and that edge that he’s trying to get Dixie basketball to play with. And I thought we really weathered that well at the start. It was a little hostile environment which is really good to see for small town basketball.”
South held a 10-9 lead early in the second quarter before the Greyhounds went on a 12-4 run to take the lead for good at 22-14.
“They kind of got hot in the second quarter to where we were just a split second late closing out on shooters,” Innis said. “We lost the fifty-fifty battle balls a lot where balls are flying on the ground. They pick it up, kick it back out, three, pick it up, loose rebound layup, so that kind of hurt us a little bit in the first half.”
Trailing 27-21 to begin the second half, South saw the gap grow to 35-22 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the quarter.
”And they got hot to start the third quarter. We came out a little a little lethargic and then we made a huge run and it’s kudos to our kids. I say it every week. They don’t quit and we just came up on the short end of the stick a little bit,” Innis said.
The Panthers closed to 45-42 with 3:15 left in the game and decided to put the Greyhounds at the line to try and extend the game.
Dixie responded by making 11-of-13 free throws.
”We sat there as a staff saying we’re going to try to extend this game. You play the odds like Vegas, you’re gonna play the odds and you know, try to foul their worst free throw percentage shooter, but hats off to those guys they made free throws down the stretch like we have done a few times to close out ballgames,” Innis said. “That’s the risk you got to take and unfortunately it’s a position we put ourselves in and we got to do a better job of not putting ourselves in that position of getting behind.”
Against Madison, Ulrich led the way with 22 points and five rebounds and Ankrom added six point and five rebounds.
South (10-6, 5-2 WOAC) was scheduled to play Yellow Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 25 and will host WOAC leader Tri-Village on Friday.
