Smith’s career-high 30 points leads Pointers over Redmen

Published 2:04 am Wednesday, December 20, 2023

By JIM WALKER

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

SOUTH POINT — Maybe Carter Smith would make a good relief pitcher.

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With leading scorer Caleb Lovely scoring just 9 points, the South Point Pointers got some big relief work with a career-high 30 points in a 76-56 Ohio Valley Conference win over the Rock Hill Redmen on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win,” said Pointers’ coach Travis Wise. “Carter Smith had a great game for us offensively and we were able to get a lot of players some playing time.”

Rock Hill surprised the Pointers and took a 19-17 first quarter lead as Blake Porter drained a pair of 3-pointers and scored 9 points while Izaak Cox and Braxton Harper scored 4 each for the Redmen.

Xathan Haney hit a pair of 3-pointers, Ethan Layne made a trey and 6 different players scored for the Pointers.

Carter got rolling in the second quarter as he made a pair of 3-pointers and scored 12 points to spark the Pointers who outscored the Redmen 21-11 to take a 38-30 halftime lead.

Caleb Lovely hit a 3-pointer and scored 5 points while Brayden Hanshaw got 4 more for the Pointers.

Cox had 6 points for the Redmen in the quarter.

Smith knocked down another pair of triples and scored 8 points in the third quarter as the lead grew to 56-41.

Porter scored all but 2 of Rock Hill’s 11 points in the quarter.

Smith scored 5 points and Ethan Hunt came off the bench in the fourth quarter to score 6 points as South Point was able to win going away.

Levi Jenkins had a 3-pointer and scored half of Rock Hill’s 14 points in the quarter.

Rock Hill    19 11 11 14 = 56

South Point 17 21 18 20 = 76

ROCK HILL (xx): Dylan Griffith 0 0 1-2 1, Braxton Harper 1 0 2-2 4, Levi Jenkins 1 1 2-2 7, Izaak Cox 6 0 1-2 13, Rylan Barker 1 0 0-0 2, Kelan Davidson 3 0 1-2 7, Blake Porter 4 3 3-4 20. Totals: 16 4 10-14 56. Fouls: 12. Fouled out Cox.

SOUTH POINT (xx): Caleb Lovely 3 1 0-0 9, Carter Smith 7 4 1-3 30, Elijah Wilburn 2 0 4-4 8, Davon Lewis 1 0 1-2 3, Xathan Haney 0 2 0-0 6, Landon Vance 0 0 0-0 0, Ethan Layne 1 1 0-0 5, Brayden Hanshaw 4 0 0-0 8, Ethan Hunt 2 0 2-3 6, Jalyn Anderson 1 0 0-0 2. Totals: 22 8 8-12 76. 3-pt. goals: 7-22. Rebounds: 30 (Lovely 6, Wilburn 5). Assists: 15 (Haney 4, Hanshaw 3). Steals: 5 (Lovely 2). Turnovers: . Fouled out: Wilburn.