Southeastern grits out confidence-building win over Huntington

Derrick Webb, Managing Editor

Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.

CHILLICOTHE — With the tournament draw right around the corner, Southeastern is at full strength.

And, admittedly, while the Panthers probably aren’t going to receive a favorable seed, you can bet your bottom dollar that they’re going to be a handful to fight off in the postseason.

Huntington found that out the hard way on Thursday.

After dropping a 40-36 decision to the Huntsmen on Dec. 18, Southeastern (6-10, 2-8 SVC) flipped the script with a 37-36 win in the Township — the program’s third straight victory.

“We’ve gotten Reese Ruckel back from injury and that’s definitely been a plus, and we’re knocking down shots,” Southeastern coach Doug Hice said. “In our league games, we’ve been in each of our losses, except the Unioto game. It really just comes down to knocking down shots. That’s the biggest difference between tonight and in our losses; knocking down shots and having Reese back.”

Having Ruckel in the lineup has made point guard Gracie Brown’s job much easier.

And, while she didn’t make a huge impact in the scoring column on Thursday, she certainly made her presence felt with everything else she did.

Offensively, she ran the show. Defensively, she clogged passing lanes and helped create turnovers.

“She’s the life of us,” Hice said of Brown. “Without her, we’re in big, big trouble. She’s grown up, too. She really has. When she was a little sophomore, we tried to make her a point guard and everything was fast. Now, she doesn’t get rattled. So without her, we’re in big trouble. She’s our glue.

Points were hard to come by in the first quarter.

Ruckel made it a 2-0 game with 5:10 left before Huntington’s Taylor Tisdale gave her team a 3-2 lead with a deep ball. Taylor scored again before Rowan Ruckel knocked down the front end of two free throws, sending the game into the second at 5-3.

The Huntsmen (6-11, 2-8 SVC) went ahead 10-5 with 5:32 remaining in the half with a bucket from Tori Smith, but the Panthers responded with an 8-0 run — courtesy of a 3 from Jade Turner, a score inside from Rowan Ruckel and a 3 from Brown.

By halftime, Southeastern was able to retain a two-point lead at 17-15.

More of the same took place in the third.

Rowan Ruckel scored to make it 19-15 before the Panthers went ahead 23-17. Smith answered on the other end with a 3-ball, but Turner ended the quarter with a 3 of her own, making it 23-20.

Smith continued to keep Huntington in the ballgame in the fourth, scoring at the 6:36 mark to cut the deficit to 28-27 before Brailee Hauswirth gave the Huntsmen a 29-28 lead with 5:59 to play.

But Southeastern’s Dylan Skaggs nailed a triple almost immediately after and, after Huntington had gone back ahead 32-31, repeated the process with just over four minutes to play.

Skaggs’ second trifecta gave the Panthers a 34-32 advantage — one they’d never relinquish in a 37-36 win.

“She hit a big 3 in the win over Lynchburg-Clay [on Monday] in overtime, too,” Hice said. “Those two 3-balls were huge for us tonight and, more than anything, they were huge for Dylan. She’s struggled a little bit shooting the ball. We all have. But when they start going through, if we can start knocking down some 3’s, they have to lay off our bigs a little bit. It all goes hand in hand.”

Statistically, Rowan Ruckel led the Panthers with 14 points and nine rebounds while Reese Ruckel added five points and 10 boards. Turner and Skaggs each had six points, and Brown finished with three points, six rebounds and three assists.

The Huntsmen were led by Smith, who had 14 points while Tisdale finished with 11 points and five rebounds. Hauswirth also helped out, adding six points and 14 rebounds.

Huntington will have a week-long break before traveling to Westfall on Jan. 29. Meanwhile, Southeastern hosts those same Mustangs this Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

They’ll be looking for their fourth straight win.

“We’d like to string together a few wins before the tournament draw,” Hice said.” There’s a lot of things we can still get better at. Free throw shooting is one of those things. Yesterday, our kids had to make 50 foul shots before they walked out of the gym. You would have looked at us tonight and thought, ‘Why don’t they shoot foul shots?’ We shoot them every day. So we still have to get better. But this is only game six or seven with Reese back in the lineup. So with a couple more games in, we expect to be a tough out come tournament time.”

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