CUMBERLAND — Trailing 31-27 at halftime, top-ranked Southern controlled the second half on both ends.
The Rams (7-5, 4-0 Western Maryland Athletic Conference) outscored No. 2 Allegany 38-15 in the second half to win 65-46 on Friday.
“We started really sloppy on offense, had nine turnovers in the first quarter,” Southern head coach Hunter Broadwater said. “Fixed that a little bit, their zone gave us some fits. We didn’t shoot the ball well when they were in zone. Finally executed some of the stuff we wanted to when they were in zone, they came out of zone and that’s when we did some really good things offensively.”
The Campers (8-3, 3-2 WestMAC) led 29-19 with 2:42 remaining in the first half after Cole Ricker hit a 3-pointer.
Southern answered with a 22-11 run between the second and third quarters.
“Good first half, I think just not executing is the theme of it,” Allegany head coach Brandon Reed said. “When things got bad, we just didn’t execute. Tried to make too big of a play. It just wasn’t our night, unfortunately it’s against Southern again where we can’t make a shot. But it just wasn’t our night. We need to execute better and play better defense.”
Braden Lucas scored 14 points with two steals and two assists during the run.
He finished with 16 points, three assists and a steal.
Ryan Bird hit a pair of free throws with 1:01 left in the third to put the Rams ahead 41-40.
“We went from nine turnovers in the first quarter to two in the second quarter,” Broadwater said. “We protected the basketball and did a really good job with staying in front of their players and keeping them out of the paint.”
Bird scored 10 points with three assists.
Graham Harvey scored a layup with 17 seconds to play, then blocked an Alco 3-pointer at the buzzer to keep Southern’s lead 43-40.
“They started hitting 3s, we were breaking down in our zone in terms of the ball getting to the high post, which we focus on not getting there and then marking shooters if it does,” Reed said. “Let shooters get loose and they had guys step up tonight, some of their role players and they knocked shots down.”
The Rams opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run, highlighted by a block from Harvey that he turned into a two-handed dunk on the other end.
Harvey led the Rams with 20 points, adding four assists and three blocks.
“He did a really good job defensively the whole game,” Broadwater said of Harvey. “In the second half, he was able to get downhill more, get in the lane. We weren’t just passing it around, stagnant around the perimeter. When they were in the zone, he was able to get downhill and score closer to the rim.”
Southern led by at least 11 points for the final 3:21.
The Rams outscored the Campers 16-7 in the third quarter and 22-6 in the fourth.
Jacob Brown shot 5 of 6 at the free throw line in the fourth and finished with 10 points, three assists and two steals.
Allegany got off to the better start offensively, scoring 20 points in the opening frame.
The Campers forced nine turnovers, but only turned it into nine points.
“Take some better looks, maybe go to the rim a little bit more, I don’t know,” Reed said of not scoring off turnovers. “I gotta go back and look at the film. But we got a lot more steals in the first half and we scored more points in the first half because of it.”
Chris Manherz hit a triple at the buzzer to put Alco ahead 20-10 after one.
Manherz scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the first half, adding four assists and three steals.
Both teams hit the road on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Allegany faces Berlin (9-3) while Southern plays Notre Dame (0-9).
“They’re always gonna be well-coached, well set, fundamentally sound,” Reed said of the Mountaineers. “It’s a basketball town, they’ll be ready for us, that’s for sure. But it’s a good opportunity to go on the road and rebound. I think it’s a group of kids that’ll come back and be better from it.”