Photo by Corey Stolzenbach/The Herald
Southridge junior Myah Montgomery (23) gets ready to take a shot Thursday night at Tecumseh. The Raiders lost to the Braves, 44-26. 

By COREY STOLZENBACH
sports@dcherald.com

LYNNVILLE — Southridge ended its regular season Thursday by dropping its third consecutive game at Pocket Athletic Conference rival Tecumseh, 44-26.

The Raiders (8-10, 6-6) jumped out to early leads of 4-2 and 6-4, but then they went cold, and they wouldn't be able to grab any more subsequent leads. Their shots were not going in, and they turned the ball over sometimes, too.

"What lost the game was we struggled shooting the basketball - credit Tecumseh, we gave up too many offensive boards - credit Tecumseh and we move forward," Southridge coach Greg Werner said.

Junior Kaybree Oxley had a game-high 24 points, and had some buckets to put Southridge down double figures at 17-6. It wasn't until Southridge junior Mikah Goeppner drained a three into the second quarter that ended a 13-0 Tecumseh run.

Myah Montgomery scored all six points for Southridge in the first quarter, but she only mustered a bucket in the second quarter. The junior managed a team-high eight points, but Montgomery was kept off the board completely in the second half.

Werner insists, though, that teams aren't playing Montgomery any differently.

"It's just some nights you have it, some nights you don't," he said. "Some of the others got to pick up the slack. There's nothing different than what has happened."

Montgomery helped foster a collective effort to help the Raiders get back into it at the end of the first half. Her, Goeppner, junior Ella Mattingly and sophomore Bailey Keusch all contributed to the score sheet in the second quarter. Southridge went into the locker room at the half on 20-14 deficit.

Southridge found a cold streak on offense again in the third quarter, however. Montgomery, Goeppner and senior Kennedy Nalley all took shots from long range, but some of them bounced in and out. Points proved to be scarce as a result of this, as the points the Raiders mustered in the third either came from closer range or at the free throw line.

They also allowed some offensive rebounds to boot, and they found themselves down double digits again, trailing, 32-19, at the end of three. However, the final quarter of the game wasn't too kind, either, as the turnovers and offensive rebounds persisted, while the offense again couldn't get much going. Keusch scored five points for the Raiders in the final quarter, and Nalley tallied a bucket.

A brand new season begins for Southridge, and the Raiders are scheduled to compete in the first game of the Forest Park sectional on Tuesday against defending champion Evansville Mater Dei.

"Mater Dei's going to play good defense," Werner said. "Mater Dei's going to bring the offense...On the offensive end, we're just going to have to execute better, but all we work for is that, when we go against a Mater Dei team, we are hoping we went against the best defenses we'll see throughout the course of the year. We hope that it's easier going down the stretch through the tournament."