Barnard's 19 leads Jeeps comeback over Bobcats; Persin now 2nd in all-time wins

FRANKLIN FURNACE — What a difference a half makes.

After another slow first half, the South Webster Jeeps picked their game up in the second half by using tough defense and transition play to earn a 54-33 win over the Green Bobcats in a Southern Ohio Conference divisional crossover game on Tuesday night.

For Jeeps coach Norm Persin, he's still trying to get a grasp of the teams' Jekyll and Hyde performances this season.

"I really don't know what's going on, we oughta just not play the first half right now. This has happened all year," said Persin. "We come out for some reason we cant get going and then second half we got into them quite a bit and get after them defensively and we hold them to 9 points."

The win moves South Webster's record to 9-2 overall and also gives coach Norm Persin career win 832 and second in all-time wins in Ohio. Meanwhile, Green falls to 5-7 on the season

"It's a number to me. More people acknowledge it than I do. All I care about is how good our team is playing and how much improvement we make."

At halftime, the Bobcats led 24-22 thanks to solid performances from Jon Knapp with 9 points and Uriah Satterfield scoring 7 to help Green control the tempo of the game.

Persin said the halftime adjustments were simply to just get back to playing tough defense and get their transition game going.

"Second half we really got going in transition. Our defense got things going and we started running. And that's the way we wanna play. Everyone played their role and got contributions out of everyone."

One of the key players to make a huge impact in the second half was Hunter Barnard, who scored 15 of his 19 points after halftime. Another was Brycin McClintic, who was a key component to the transition game with 4 assists in the second half.

The Jeeps got rolling in the third quarter with an 11-1 run to take the lead for good.

McClintic put the Jeeps up 25-24 with a free throw at the 5:51 mark of the third.

Then McClintic tallied a pair of assists, first to Hunter Barnard and then another to Easton Large on a backdoor cut to highlight the run.

To cap off a dominant third, Hunter Barnard buried a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Jeeps a commanding 36-27 lead going into the final quarter.

Hunter Barnard would score 10 more in the fourth as the Jeeps outscored the Bobcats 18-6 to coast the rest of the way.

"Against quality teams you can lose the possession battle," said Bobcats coach J.D. King." Especially coming out there in the second half, they had a flurry there and sucked the wind out of us. All of a sudden your two point lead turns into a 6 point deficit."

During the first half, the Bobcats were able to get their transition game going. Much of that success came from Knapp pulling down 10 first half rebounds and getting the ball in transition to get the Bobcats up the floor.

Knapp scored the final six points of the quarter for the Bobcats to give them their first lead of the game. When Knapp sank the free throw to complete his 3-point play, Green had a 14-12 lead after one quarter.

The Bobcats were led by Knapp with 9 points, 11 rebounds and 4 steals. Satterfield finished with 9 points and 7 rebounds.

South Webster 12  10   14   18  =  54

Green        14   10     3   6  =  33

SOUTH WEBSTER (9-2): Hunter Barnard 6 2 1-1 19, Cole Bennett 0 0 0-0 0, Brayden Barnard 3 0 0-0 6, Jaheim Froe 0 1 0-0 3, Brycin McClintic 2 0 3-4 7, Caden Johnson 0 3 0-0 9, Easton Large 5 0 0-0 10; TOTALS: 16 6 4-5 54. Rebounds: (O-4, D-19) 23 (H. Barnard 6, Large 6, B. Barnard 5). Assists: 11 (McClintic 7). Steals: 10 (McClintic 3, Large 3). Blocks: 5 (Large 3). Fouls: 7. Fouled out: None

GREEN (5-7): Jacob Sampson 2 0 1-2 5, Jon Knapp 1 2 1-1 9, Riddick Jenkins 1 0 0-0 2, Brennan Renison 1 0 0-0 2, Noah McMackin 0 0 0-2 0, Kase McIntyre 3 0 0-0 6, Uriah Satterfield 2 1 2-2 9. Totals: 10 3 4-7 33. Rebounds: (O-5, D-20) 25 (Knapp 11, Satterfield 7, Jenkins 3). Assists: 5 (Knapp 2, Satterfield 2). Steals: 5 (Knapp 4). Blocks: 2 (Knapp, McIntyre). Fouls: 5. Fouled out: None.