Early second half run by Raiders leads them to victory

Published 12:14 am Saturday, December 7, 2019

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AMERICUS – The Southland Academy Raider basketball team (SA) went on a 13-7 run in the third quarter that effectively sealed the deal against Windsor Academy (WA). As a result of that second half run, the Raiders took control of the game and went on to defeat the Knights 63-43 on Friday, December 6, at Southland Academy.

With the win, SA remains undefeated at 2-0

“I think their two best players got in foul trouble early in that third quarter. That helped us out a lot. Number three and number 20 are very good players,” SA head coach Rundy Foster said. Foster was referring to WA shooting guard Blayze Dennis (#3) and power forward Shaheed Butler (#20). Dennis led the Knights with 17 points and Butler scored two. “I thought we shot the ball a little bit better in the third quarter than we had in the first two quarters, which helped us as well,” Foster said.

Owen Exley led the Raiders in scoring with 19 points and two other SA players finished in double figures as well. Luke Law scored 16 points and Adam Smith scored 11. Nathan Duke chipped in seven points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the winning cause.

Southland point guard Max Foster directs traffic for the Raiders. Foster scored five points in the win over Windsor Academy.
Photo by Ken Gustafson

The Raiders jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game, which included a three-pointer by Smith. However, the Knights went on a 7-4 run to close out the first quarter.

Both teams were cold from the field in the first few minutes of the second quarter, but the Raiders led 13-9 with a little over six minutes to go, thanks to two made free throws by Smith.

However, Max Foster nailed a three-pointer that began a 9-3 run by the Raiders before WA head coach Michael Johnson called a timeout with a little over four minutes left in the first half. At that point, SA led 22-14. The Raiders closed out the first half with a 6-3 run, capped off with a three-point play by Exley.

Both Exley and Smith led the Raiders in first-half scoring with nine points each.

Luke Law (23) scored 16 points to help lead the Southland Academy Raiders to a 63-43 victory over Windsor Academy.
Photo by Ken Gustafson

In the first four and a half minutes of the third quarter, the Raiders took control of the game. They went on a 13-7 run to start the quarter, capped off with a three-pointer by Law. With a little over two minutes left in the quarter, Law hit another three-pointer to give the Raiders a 48-29 lead. From that point on, SA was in control.

During the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, the Knights began making a move to get back in the game. They were able to cut the Raiders’ lead down to 51-37 before Foster called a timeout with 6:21 to play. However, that would be as close as the Knights would get. The Raiders went on a 12-6 run to close out the game.

Up next for SA is a home game against Crisp Academy on Tuesday, December 10. Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m.