By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
GUYTON – South Effingham boys basketball coach Rico Campbell didn’t know what to say, a routine of dissecting losses during the last 38 games took a new turn Friday night in the SEHS gym.
South defeated Woodville-Tompkins 77-73 to snap a streak of frustration that carried back to Dec. 16, 2022 when the Mustangs last left a gym with victory – topping Islands 62-40.
“Everyone was hyped in the lockerroom. What was it – a season and a half since they won?” asked freshman Kaleb Griffin, maybe looking for confirmation.
“We won over the summer so (the losing streak) didn’t seem that bad,” Campbell said. “We knew a win was coming. We were going to beat somebody. … Ever since February (the end of the 2023-24 season), we’ve been locked in. We were going to change our style of play. We weren’t going to stand still. We were going to press. It’s made us more aggressive. Now we’re fighting for everything. We just have to keep it going.”
South played a competitive game with the Wolverines in the teams’ initial meeting on Nov. 8 in Garden City before falling short 66-61. Woodville won 22 games last season.
It was an encouraging showing for a team that lost 22 games (15 by 20 or more points) in the same time frame.
Last Friday was another boost of encouragement for SEHS. In the fourth quarter, Woodville closed within a point of the lead five times – 60-59, 65-64, 67-66, 72-71 and 74-73 – but the Mustangs didn’t relinquish their advantage.
With 14.6 seconds left and a 74-73 lead, Hall stepped to the free-throw line and sank two free throws.
Wolverine forward Jonathan Pickering, who finished with a game-high 38 points, missed a game-tying three-pointer from the corner on the next possession and Hall was fouled again with 4.3 seconds left. Hall made the first shot to seal the win.
“I felt confident. I didn’t feel any pressure,” said Hall, who had 14 of his 17 points in the second half.
Griffin, who came off the bench, had 11 of his team-high 18 points in the first half.
“I don’t know what to say when we win. Everybody who played did well,” Campbell said. “It was a hard-fought game. It started to slip away but our free-throw shooting was big. And our press was big. I think we wore them down a bit.”
South extended its lead to nine, 38-29, after four different players scored during an 8-0 run.
Woodville scored the final four points of the first half and, behind Pickering’s 17-point third quarter, took a lead into the final seconds of the quarter.
But Griffin’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Mustangs a 60-58 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
SEHS made 11-of-16 free-throw shots in the final quarter, 5-of-6 in the last 1:04.
“I could feel the energy before the game,” Griffin said. “We had something to prove.”
