SHORT GAP, W.Va. — After a first-quarter scoring duel between Jared Haskiell and Jeremy Phillips, Southern’s other players stepped up to fuel a Rams’ rout.
The two standouts are among the area’s premier scorers, with Phillips second (25.1 points per game) and Haskiell third (22.3). They fit that billing in the first quarter as Haskiell poured in 16 to outpace Phillips’ 10 for a 19-12 Rams lead.
Haskiell was held to six points the rest of the way, but Brayden Upole contributed a team-high 23 points and Jacob Brown scored 10, powering a 69-59 victory for the third-ranked Rams in a game they led by as many as 23.
“Our ball movement was good to start, and then we got stagnant. We started to move the ball again, and people were scoring,” Southern head coach Hunter Broadwater said.
“The ball movement got a little better, it opened things up and Jared didn’t have to carry us.”
The game’s turning point came after Frankfort (8-8) started the second quarter on an 8-0 run for a 20-19 lead, prompting a Southern (11-7) timeout with 5:05 on the clock.
The Rams responded to the stoppage with seven straight points, and they never trailed again.
Southern, leading 33-26 at the half, controlled the third quarter 20-8 and pushed to a game-high 57-34 edge early in the fourth quarter.
Frankfort waged a late comeback to cut it to 10, but the hole dug in the third period proved to be insurmountable.
“They put together a couple runs in the third quarter that really made a huge difference,” Frankfort head coach Scott Slider said. “The bottom line is, we didn’t actually start playing basketball until the fourth quarter.
“As I said to the team after, ‘Coach (Tony) Cimaglia and I, coach (Garrett) D’Atri, we’re scratching our heads because we go out and play hard for three minutes of a ballgame to put ourselves back in a game that we got down by 20.'”
Upole and Haskiell combined for 45 points. Upole tallied a game-high 23 on four 3-pointers and a 5 for 6 performance at the line, and Haskiell garnered 22, sinking four triples and making all eight of his free throws.
Haskiell is 20 for 20 at the free-throw line over the past two games and is an area-best 84 for 97 (86.6%) for the season.
Jacob Brown joined them in double figures with 10 points.
Down low, big men Ryan Bird and Joel Campbell combined for 10 points in the second half. Bird scored eight for the game and Campbell added four.
“Frankfort doesn’t really have a post presence, and we talked about it pregame, we talked about it at halftime,” Broadwater said. “We got better ball movement, and we got our bigs catching the ball going towards the rim.”
Phillips led all scorers with 25 points, making four 3-pointers, for Frankfort. Jake Layton added 13, Bryson Mckenzie sunk three treys for nine points and Uriah Cutter added eight points.
Southern won the junior varsity game 43-26. Sean Eiswert (12 points) and Cade Leader (10) led the Rams. Braeden Laffey had 11 for Frankfort.
Frankfort has a full slate of games in the coming weeks to get in a rhythm before the playoffs with five contests remaining on the regular-season schedule.
The Falcons return to action at Northern (10-10) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“I want to see all the things we’ve been working on in practice come through,” Slider said. “Some of the off-ball cuts and things like that. We saw a few of those tonight.”
Southern heads to Tucker County (15-2) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“Going to Tucker is always tough,” Broadwater said. “It’s a good atmosphere to play in. It’s a tough atmosphere, but it’s fun. We need to go up and execute and play defense for a full 32 minutes.”