Southside comeback bid falls short against Cabot

The Cabot Panthers made enough free throws in the fourth quarter to withstand a furious Southside rally. The Mavericks’ 62-56 loss, however, wasn’t exactly the worst news of the day for coach Steve Brown. Because of last month’s forfeit, which by rule means the Mavericks picked up 10-tie-breaker points, Cabot’s six-point win means that if it comes down to a tie-breaker, the Mavericks have an edge. The way things have gone this season, Brown will take any advantage he can get. The Mavericks rallied from a 14-point first half deficit to trail by just four with a minute to play. “I told them at halftime, there is good news and bad news,” Brown said. “I told them, the good news is we’re only down by 9 or 10. The bad news is we probably shot about as bad as we could shoot.” Senior Hannah Rainwater drilled three third-quarter 3-pointers and the Mavericks, outscoring the Panthers 21-10 in the third quarter, helped Southside carry a 37-36 lead into the fourth quarter. “We talked about it at halftime; we’ve got a lot of shooters on the outside,” Rainwater said. “Our main plan was to get it in and kick it back out and try to get those threes, and to draw fouls and get them in trouble.” Montana Smith and Hannah Schmidt got into the 3-point shooting foray as well. “We have a lot of heart in this team,” Rainwater said. “We just have to do everything we can to fight.” Moorea Kleck’s put-back with 5.2 seconds left in the third quarter put the Mavericks ahead by one after three. But Cabot, which had to forfeit its first three conference wins, opened the fourth quarter with a 13-0 scoring run. The Mavericks recovered, eventually, but could get no closer than four (60-56) with 20.1 left to play. “It really came down to us playing better defense,” senior Kelly Carson said. “We wanted to play better defense. We realized once we were down we would have to push harder.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Cabot High School Athletics

SOUTHSIDE COMEBACK BID FALLS SHORT AGAINST CABOT

KEVIN SHAFFER

Times Record | 2/7/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Mitchell