His team had already defeated Ballou of Washington earlier this season, but Southern coach Tom Albright still had the utmost respect for the Knights heading into last night's championship round of the Southern Christmas Tournament.
"Ballou has some players," Albright said, moments after watching his Bulldogs upend St. Mary's-Ryken, 90-42, in Wednesday night's first-round matchup in Harwood. "Ballou ,X does a lot of asphalt play, but they have some athletes, so if we don't get on the boards, they're going to kill us."
The Bulldogs didn't get routed but they lost the battle on the boards and ultimately the game, 63-58.
Southern (3-4) fell behind by as many as 16 in the third quarter before rallying back and falling short in its comeback bid.
Ballou (5-5), which advanced to the tournament final by holding off Great Mills, 62-45, in the opening round, saw the hosts pull within two with 32 seconds left after a basket by Scott Crandell, butthe game got no closer.
Southern tried to foul its way back into the game in the closing seconds, but the player they fouled -- Ronald Hammond -- hit eight of 10 free throws down the stretch to ice it.
"We're a different team than we were the first time we played them and we showed that tonight," said Ballou first-year coach ++ Michael Grafton, who inherited a team that went 0-23 last year.
Ballou hit the boards hard and beat Southern down the floor with its transition game in the first quarter and led 12-6 after a rebound and layup by Gregory Martin. Southern turned the ball over 10 times in the opening quarter but a 6-for-7 effort at the foul line kept the Bulldogs to within four at the end of the first period.
Southern came out under more control in the second quarter and its discipline paid off. Crandell (17 points) drove the baseline to tie it at 18, and a baseline jumper by Adam Booth gave the Bulldogs their first lead, 20-18, with 5:54 left in the half.
Ballou upped the margin to seven on back-to-back three-pointers, but a tip-in by junior center Matt Thomas and a pair of free throws pulled Southern to within four at the half, 32-28.
"The way things started out, I thought they were going to blow us out but the pep talk Coach Albright gave us [during a timeout in the fourth quarter] was unbelieveable," said Thomas, who finished with 12 points. "He told us not to worry about the game and to execute the fundamentals and we did and things started working out. Even though we lost I still feel good about the way we came back."