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South Sumter High School's Ian Papenheim, left, and Mike McCrimmon block South Lake High School's Mike Dodson in Groveland on Monday, Feb. 1, 2010.

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published: Friday, February 05, 2010

South Lake routs South Sumter

BENJAMIN ROODE

Correspondent

GROVELAND -- The South Lake Eagles boys basketball seniors went out with a big win Monday night, trouncing the South Sumter Raiders 80-47.

Eagles Senior Matt Chattin led South Lake scorers with 23 points on 5-for-11 three-point shooting. Fellow senior Mike Dodson scored 15, and senior Mike Grant added 14 points.

"I really wanted to see them go out on a good note... and they did," said South Lake head coach Darnell Haney.

The Eagles kept hitting good notes through the game. They reached a 56-30 halftime lead with seven different players scoring. That diversity was a good lesson for the younger Eagles players, Haney said.

But more than a teaching moment, South Lake's motivation came from this past weekend: South Lake was coming off a tough loss to a good Dr. Phillips team. The win put the Eagles at 9-12 for the year.

Eagles shooters seemed to want to redeem themselves early. Chattin went 3 of 7 from beyond the arc in the first quarter and added two more three-pointers in the second. Grant sliced through the lane for six points in quarter one, and fellow senior Deshawn Cousins added four.

The Raiders just couldn't stop good outside shooting, said coach Gary Russo, though his players did do some good hustling.

"It was a good lesson for us," said Russo, referring to his team's relative youth on the floor.

South Lake's late-game exuberance didn't sit well with Russo, he said. South Lake players were shooting alley-oops and, in Russo's mind, unnecessarily running up the score of a late season game. Officials began a running clock with about two minutes to go in the third quarter.

"That stuff don't fly," Russo said after the game.

South Sumter drops to 4-17.