Jan. 9—AIKEN — South Aiken boys’ basketball coach Sam McDowell chose his words carefully when describing the halftime conversation he had with his team Tuesday night against Gilbert.
The T-Breds were listless to start the game, their first of the new year and first since some tough losses around the holidays.
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A low-scoring battle against a one-win team wasn’t the most encouraging sign for a program eager to reverse the narrative it can’t finish when the lights are bright, so McDowell and his staff needed to deliver a message to their players.
An intense conversation, as he put it.
It worked. South Aiken played with an increased energy level in the second half, turning what had been an eight-point deficit late in the second quarter into a 17-point victory.
Wins and losses are always important in region play, especially in a league like Region 4-AAAA, but how the T-Breds finished this one was key in that it showed they’re capable of making the changes they need to rather than waiting around for the bad to get worse.
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“Credit to Gilbert. They probably played their best game they played all year. I know they’ve struggled a little bit, and they played really, really hard. They never gave up,” McDowell said. “As far as what changed for us, we went in the locker room and had a very intense conversation about our effort in the first half. The first 14 minutes of the first half, we weren’t playing hard, we weren’t rotating, it didn’t matter what defense we were in. We were not playing very well, at all. Something changed those last two or three minutes, but we went in the locker room and we had a not-so-friendly conversation about what needed to change in the second half. To our kids’ credit, they adjusted and put the game away.”
The second-half surge is a sign the T-Breds (7-6, 2-1 Region 4-AAAA) needed to see, especially with 11 more games remaining in the region gauntlet. It’s a veteran group that’s been through the grind before, and this time around they want to see all those close losses from a year ago turn into wins.
“I think this is the most dedicated group I’ve had so far in my three years at South Aiken,” McDowell said. “… They really work hard for the most part and they like each other, they want to be around each other. I think we’ve built a good culture here where accountability matters. If you’re late to practice, you’re not going to start. You might not play in the first quarter. You’re going to run at practice if you don’t do certain things. We’ve got to keep holding those guys accountable, but they also have bought into that, as well. They’ve accepted that, and they want to be held accountable. That goes a long way into winning some tight games in the second half.”
The usual suspects are leading the way for South Aiken, with junior Kyson McLeod averaging 13.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game to top the team in both categories. He put together a mini-run late in the second quarter to help cut an eight-point deficit to two at the half, and he finished with 23 points and seven rebounds.
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Fellow junior Deon Simpkins is averaging 13 points per game, junior Ray Harris (9.8 points, 7.1 rebounds) is a nightly double-double threat, and senior Keon Raysor (7.8 points, 2.8 assists) has increased his numbers nearly all across the board.
Delivering a big spark to South Aiken early in the season is sophomore guard DJ McKelvin, who was the third-leading scorer for the junior varsity team last year and has already made his presence felt on the varsity roster. Tuesday was one of his best games yet, as he finished with 14 points, five rebounds, three assists, six steals and two blocks.
“One, he’s a team captain as a sophomore. That should say a lot to you right there,” McDowell said. “… He probably has the highest motor on the team. He’s certainly not a perfect player. He’s got a lot of improving to do, but he does a lot of things well. He plays really hard. He creates havoc on defense. He finishes at the rim. He’s tough. He doesn’t complain.
“He took a beating tonight, and he kept going inside, going inside, going inside. Gilbert didn’t have an answer for him. He’s a 10th-grader. It’s really exciting to see him play this well, because, honestly, he struggled a little bit the last few games. He kind of hit that sophomore wall that a lot of kids get right around Christmas time, and we kept working with him and he really turned it on tonight.”
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The formula to win isn’t a complicated one — the T-Breds have seen when they play hard and execute, they have success. It’s just a matter of flipping that switch, and there’s plenty of incentive to do so in the coming weeks. Second-ranked North Augusta visits on Friday, followed by road trips next week to No. 1 Gray Collegiate Academy and Midland Valley before hosting rival Aiken on Jan. 20.
“I think we saw some of it in the second half. When we call certain things late in the game, or we call certain things throughout the game, when we’re locked in and engaged we’re able to execute what we run, whatever we’re doing, especially offensively,” McDowell said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do on the defensive end right now. Offensively, I think we do an OK job of executing our stuff. It’s never a perfect situation. I keep harping on it, but it’s true. We’ve got a veteran group. They know what this region is. They know that we’ve got to go turn around and play North Augusta on Friday night — here at home, thankfully, but that’s a whole other monster right there. We’ve got to go turn the page on this one and go get ready.”
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