South County boys hoops: How two small towns have learned to thrive under the same banner
WAVERLY — Waverly and Franklin were once fierce rivals on the basketball floor.
They now seem to have something brewing under the same orange and black banner in Morgan County.
The South County boys basketball team is certainly shaking up the local basketball landscape as a new force to be reckoned with.
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It has not only garnered the top seed in its vaunted home tournament but has backed that up with a signature win to remember for a lifetime and perhaps a promising harbinger of even greater things ahead for the nascent program that first formed in 2015.
The Vipers outlasted No. 5 defending champion Jacksonville Routt 66-61 in four overtimes at the newly minted Jim Roeschley Gymnasium on Wednesday.
They channeled their budding camaraderie to overcome Routt sophomore guard Bryson Mossman’s gaudy 42 points to knock off the Rockets for a third time this season and improve to 12-3 – a stark jump from last year’s 16-16 overall mark.
Six different players reached at least six points. Seniors Trevor Colwell and Noah Lyons characteristically led the way with 17 and 15 points, respectively.
Colwell and Lyons have surfaced as one of the top duos in the area and perfectly encapsulate the newfound bond between the two rural towns. Colwell hails from Franklin while Lyons comes from Waverly.
“Bringing the two towns together can really create a good team, great fans and everything else,” Lyons said. “I enjoy it a lot.”
The duo first paired up freshman year in high school.
“We both started to get those varsity roles (freshman year) and we’ve kind of just been able to click,” Lyons said. “Now we’re the leaders on this team. We take that with a high responsibility and just do what we’ve been trying to do our whole high school career.”
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The Vipers, now led by Auburn graduate Bryon Graven in his fifth season at the helm, went 20-13 in their first year as a coop but have never been able to match that level of success since that time.
They have also never appeared in the Waverly Holiday Tournament semifinals until now. They meet Auburn on Thursday at 2 p.m.
Franklin last won the tournament in 2011 while Waverly captured its last title in 1983.
“They’re all close, they’re all friends,” Graven said. “You can say the cliché, they don’t care who scores. It’s not really a cliché because they really just don’t care because they’re all friends.
"I tell a lot of people, too, about how hard these guys play and how well they guard and all this other stuff. But the main thing is they’re a bunch of good kids. You should see them with my son at shootaround or practice, they’re just good kids.”
They certainly persevered through a grueling battle. It was just the second game to ever reach four overtimes in the tournament’s 73-year history. Raymond Lincolnwood won in four OTs, 65-58, against Greenfield/Northwestern in 2017.
Mossman forced the first OT with a step-back 3 with seven seconds left in regulation for a 36-36 tie. He kept the Rockets alive with three successful free throw attempts with 5.1 seconds remaining in the first OT. Mossman finished with eight 3s in the loss.
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“We know how good he is – just period,” Graven said of Mossman. “He’s a really good player and when he got hot, he got hot. I thought we did a really good job on him. He just made shots. He’s just a good player. That’s what I told the guys. When guys make shots like that, you just tip your hat and move on to the next play.”
Colwell supplied heroics of his own.
He sustained South County with a game-tying basket in the final 30 seconds of the second overtime while junior forward Clark Nelson evened the contest in the third OT on an assist from sophomore Chase Dougherty after Lyons fouled out.
Nelson generated 12 points. Junior guard Bishop McDannald followed with eight points while sophomore guard Caden Colwell, Trevor’s younger brother, had seven points. Dougherty had six points.
“We had a bunch of sophomores who stepped up and finished out the game for us,” Lyons said. “Sitting on the bench was crazy. I’ve never been so nervous and have so much (jitters) built up ever. It was awesome.”
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Colwell hit the go-ahead free throws with under three minutes left in the fourth OT. Colwell said he had never been to a game quite like that one.
“I think it’s just growth,” Colwell said of the team’s composure. “Last year we were all kind of young. We started a lot of juniors and sophomores, now we’re juniors and seniors this year. I think we’ve grown a lot over the summer and the chemistry’s gotten better. It’s really nice.”
South County graduated just one senior last year: Thad Bergschneider.
“It’s a good feeling to be the No. 1 seed in this tournament and play like we can,” Colwell said.
NO. 3 AUBURN 50, NO. 7 ATHENS 37
Carter Hunley galvanized the Trojans to a win with seven of his nine points in the fourth quarter.
Auburn trailed 30-27 at halftime before going into the fourth period deadlocked at 32-all. Sawyer Smith totaled 10 points while Grant Dobson had nine.
Coby Tobias hit four 3s to lead Athens with 12 points.
NO. 2 NEW BERLIN 46, NO. 6 GREENFIELD/NORTHWESTERN 44, OT
Gannon Dodd totaled 21 points and the Pretzels eked out a win to advance to the second semifinal against No. 4 Winchester West Central on Thursday at 8 p.m.
Dodd helped force OT with eight points in the fourth period after trailing 30-27 at the end of the third.
Lucas Bixby stepped up with all of the team’s four points in the overtime period. He finished with 12 points. Talon Albrecht led Greenfield with 31 points, converting four 3s and 7 of 9 free throw attempts.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: South County boys basketball reaches new heights with Colwell, Lyons
