CUMBERLAND — After a bit of a slow start in the first half, No. 1 Fort Hill took command in the third quarter and cruised to a 72-33 win over visiting Southern Fulton (Pa.) on Monday.
“I thought we overcame missing a lot of shots,” Fort Hill head coach Thad Burner said. “That was the difference. We rebounded. I thought we moved the ball in transition.”
The Sentinels (13-3) outscored the Indians (11-8) in the third quarter 26-8.
Leading 33-20 at halftime, the third quarter was dominated by Fort Hill.
The Sentinels forced 12 turnovers, nine coming from steals.
Liam Hamilton, who finished with 10 points and five assists, contributed three of his four steals in the third quarter.
With about five minutes left, Hamilton stole the ball directly from the inbounding player. It led to a put back by Gavin Carney to go up 45-24 with 4:40 left in the third.
Carney had a big third quarter with 10 points. Hamilton assisted Carney on two of his five scores in the quarter.
Carney led the Sentinels with 14 points, adding a pair of steals and assists.
“Today, I thought they worked well together,” Burner said of Hamilton and Carney. “Its the first year they’ve ever played together. I think maybe they’re starting to feel each other a little bit.”
Fort Hill had two 12-2 runs in the third quarter. The Sentinels held the Indians to 3 of 10 from the field including 0 of 4 from 3-point range.
“Their emotion, they played a little harder,” Burner said of what changed after halftime. “We tried to stress, if you’re not making shots, you gotta do other things. We turned them over a little bit and made some layups. Transition was the difference in the third quarter.”
Fort Hill led 59-28 after three and outscored Southern Fulton 13-5 in the fourth quarter.
While the Sentinels ended up winning by nearly 40 points, it didn’t look like they would in the first half.
Fort Hill took 12 free throws in the first quarter, but only made four.
The Sentinels continued to struggle at the line in the second quarter, shooting 4 for 9.
Fort Hill shot 8 of 21 at the charity stripe in the first half and finished 11 of 27.
“Maybe a lack of concentration, maybe it’s a Monday, I don’t know,” Burner said of the misses. “We gotta solve some of the problems shooting. That’s kind of been plaguing us the last week.”
The Sentinels also struggled from the field, opening the game 4 of 14 in the first quarter.
“I didn’t think we were running any sort of offense in the first half,” Burner said. “When you’re not catching the ball, shooting in rhythm I think it’s tough.”
A put back by Hamilton put Fort Hill up 12-8 with 22 seconds left in the first quarter.
Trentin Cain set up Hunter Ward who hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to cut the Southern Fulton deficit to 12-11.
Ward led Southern Fulton with 12 points, adding three assists.
In the second quarter, Fort Hill started to find its offense. Landon Sensabaugh was key, hitting 3 of 5 shots from beyond the arc.
Sensabaugh finished with 12 points off of four 3-pointers.
“He did a nice job coming off the bench,” Burner said. “His 3-point shot was basically the difference in the lead at that point.”
The Sentinels outscored the Indians 21-9 in the second quarter.
Deshaun Brown was one of four Sentinels to score in double figures. He finished with 13 points, four steals and a block.
Jabril Daniels added nine points, three assists and two steals.
“They work hard, they’re emotional leaders,” Burner said of Brown and Daniels. “If we’re gonna win other games going forward, they’re gonna be a big part of that.”
Gamil Daniels only scored one point, but added five assists and four steals.
Sammy Stotler scored 11 points with two steals for the Indians.
Fort Hill won the junior varsity game 53-31.
Sam Spencer scored a game-high 19 points while Noah House added 14 for the Sentinels. Spencer hit four 3-pointers.
Gaven Mellott led Southern Fulton with 10 points.
Fort Hill hosts Mountain Ridge on Wednesday at 7 p.m. It will be Senior Night for the Sentinels with seven of the 11 players on the roster set to graduate.
“Hopefully, they play with a lot of emotion on Wednesday,” Burner said. “I think Mountain Ridge is steadily improving, if we don’t come to play it’s gonna be really difficult. They’re improving a lot, we’re gonna have to be a lot more focused than we were tonight.”