HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL : Sloppier Sundevils Still Stop Southwest

It was hardly an aesthetically pleasing performance Friday night by the 10th-ranked Mt. Carmel Sundevils Friday night.

The 40 or so people in the stands at the Madison Warhawk Tournament saw their share of errant passes, shaky shooting, sloppy ballhandling and defensive lapses by Mt. Carmel. But the Sundevils get still handled Southwest, 78-53, in the round-robin tournament.

“We’ve been playing so well,” Mt. Carmel Coach John Marincovich said. “But this was not one of our better performances.”

Mt. Carmel jumped out to a 32-14 lead with 3:41 left in the second quarter, but then the turnover parade began. And three minutes later, Southwest (1-3) was back into the game with 12 unanswered points, five by Devin Patterson.

“They beat the snot out of us in the second quarter,” Marincovich said.

Southwest stayed within striking distance for the first few minutes of the third quarter, but Mt. Carmel blew open a 39-30 game with 15-9 run that gave it a 54-39 lead after three quarters. In the spurt, forward John Young came off the bench to score six of his 15 points.

Southwest was never able to get closer than 15 points, which allowed Marincovich plenty of opportunities to give his younger players some experience.

“We want to be able to play eight or nine kids every game,” he said. “Every game this season we’ve been able to look at a lot of kids.”

In other words, Mt. Carmel has yet to be tested.

“This is good for us,” Marincovich said. “We have a young team and maybe it’s better we don’t have a tough schedule early like we did last year.”

Ryan Wootton led Mt. Carmel with 15 points, Bill Landry had 12 and Andy Shantz added 11. The Sundevils’ Chris Goode led all rebounders with 11 and scored nine points. Patterson led Southwest with 15 points.