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South boys use caution in slipping past Crater By DON HUNT Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT - South Medford High boys basketball coach Dennis Murphy warned his players that Crater was not a team his Panthers could take lightly. The Comets went into Tuesday's game 10-4 overall and 3-1 in the Southern Oregon Conference, and a victory over the No. 3-ranked Panthers would have been their biggest in years. But any thoughts of an upset probably went by the wayside before the game started when Andrew Norum - Crater's 6-foot-5 junior post - was declared inactive because of illness. With Norum in street clothes on the Comet bench, South Medford center Eric Fiegi scored 21 points to pace the Panthers to a 68-49 victory. "We're not a big team to begin with, and without Andrew we're small," Crater coach Matt Meunier said. "He's our leading rebounder and second-leading scorer and our main focus underneath." South Medford funneled the ball to the 6-9 Fiegi in the game's opening minutes, and he responded with nine points in staking the Panthers to a 16-4 lead, punctuating his early dominance with a 3-point play at the 2-minute, 19-second mark of the first period. The Comets went to a zone defense the rest of the night, and they crawled within six points at 21-15 when Derek Petersen hit a 3-point basket with five minutes left in the first half. But that's the closest they could get. "Our guys did a great job of getting me the ball early," said Fiegi, the SOC's leading scorer at 20 points per game. "I got the ball in positions where I could score." Ryan Heil also turned in a strong performance for South Medford. The 6-1 senior point guard finished with 18 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and six steals - along with no turnovers. Senior forward Alan Johnson chipped in 14 points for the Panthers, who improved to 5-0 in the SOC and 14-1 overall. Crater dropped to 3-2 and 10-6. Meunier was pleased that his squad hung tough after its early double-digit deficit. Running a motion offense that featured multiple screens, the Comets burned South for no less than six backdoor layups and missed on several other close attempts around the basket. "We played hard the entire game and stayed together as a group, which isn't easy when you get behind," Meunier said. "South is the kind of team that can bury you in the first quarter, and we weathered their storm and did some good things to get back in the game." At one point late in the first half, the smaller Comets collected three straight offensive rebounds only to miss all three putbacks. Even so, Jake Zimmerman's reverse layup with 17 seconds left before the intermission got the Comets within 33-21 at the break. Dan Gugliotta's 14-foot bank shot from the right side to start the third period pulled the Comets within 33-23, and the gap was still 10 points (41-31) with 3:09 left in the quarter when Chris Pettegrew swished a 3-pointer. But Heil responded with back-to-back treys over the next minute that hiked South's advantage to 47-31. Crater never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way. "Those 3s by Heil just killed us," Meunier said. "They were back-breakers." Senior forward Trevor Ryan led the Comets with 11 points and Petersen had 10. "I think this South team is as good as I've seen," said Meunier, who has been with the Comets for nine years, the last five as head coach. "They've got a lot of kids who can play, and with the 6-9 guy (Fiegi) in the middle, they're tough to beat." SOUTH MEDFORD (68) -Fiegi 21, Heil 18, Johnson 14, Marshall 8, Fischer 2, Carpenter 2, Hagert 2, Lower 1, Walport 0, Olson 0, Smith 0. Totals: 26 13-21 68. CRATER (49) - Ryan 11, Petersen 10, Goode 9, Sills 6, Pettegrew 5, Gugliotta 4, Zimmerman 4, Davis 0, Goff 0, Slezak 0, Schoonover 0. Totals: 20 3-4 49. South Medford ......................................16 17 17 18 - 68 Crater....................................................... 8 13 13 15 - 49 3-point goals - Crater 6 (Petersen 2, Ryan 2, Goode 1, Pettegrew 1), South Medford 5 (Heil 3, Johnson 1, Marshall 1). Fouled out - none. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.