Sometimes the growing pains experienced by a young team trying to find its way can be particularly searing in nature. A case in point: South’s heartbreaking 51-50 loss to visiting Aurora on Dec. 23. The Rebels led for the entirety of the second half, except for the game’s final 45 seconds, when the Greenmen took the lead on the tail end of an 8-0 closing run to pull out the victory. South, which fell to 2-6 on the season, appeared to have the Greenmen on the ropes at a few junctures in the second half, but just couldn’t put the game away. Aurora (4-2), whose starting five was more experienced than that of the Rebels, was down, 50-43, with less than two minutes to play, after South junior Jaiden Lamb scored underneath the basket on a nice assist from senior Rakeem Drew. Aurora junior Max Keyes nailed an open 3 from the wing to make it 50-46, and then Aurora forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass that led to another 3 by senior guard John Trivisonno that cut it to 50-49. After another Rebel turnover, Trivisonno, who scored all of his team-high 16 points in the second half, drove the lane and put in a layup to give the Greenmen a 51-50 lead with 45 seconds to play. South turned the ball over yet again, but Aurora missed two free throws to give the Rebels another chance. Drew, who had played a phenomenal all-around game all night, had a chance to put South back in front as it appeared he had finished a drive through Aurora’s defense with a textbook layup in the final seconds, but the ball rimmed out and was grabbed by the Greenmen. Trivisonno came up big for Aurora, scoring 13 of his 16 in the fourth quarter. Senior Luke Bonnette was a presence in the middle with eight points and 11 rebounds for the Greenmen, who shot 49% from the field (21 of 43) and held a 27-22 rebounding advantage. “Great team win,” Aurora coach Cody Calhoun said. “Johnny was awesome in the second half, at both ends of the floor, scoring and he also had a couple big steals, just made a lot of big plays. “I’m just proud of our guys. We fought. It would have been easy to pack it in when we were down, but our guys just kept chipping away, a little bit at a time.” South found itself getting outrebounded in the first half and fell behind by eight points three times in the second quarter. But the Rebels, who have had trouble shooting and finishing at the rim this season, showed those tendencies early in this one, but started to work their way out of it in the second frame. A triple by Drew kicked off an 8-2 run to close the first half that pulled South within 24-23 going into halftime. Drew scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the second quarter, mainly on drives against the tough Aurora defense. Lamb scored on a feed from junior Jackson Klouda to put South up, 25-24, to start the third quarter. The Rebels sank six from the foul line in the stanza, paced by junior Malick Sy’s four, as South kept Aurora at arms’ length, to go with a 3-ball by Lamb and a defensive effort that held Aurora to seven points in the third quarter. South led, 37-31, going into the fourth, but missed an opportunity to push the lead to double digits at the end of the third with some missed free throws. Trivisonno scored twice around a turnover to start the fourth and cut the Aurora deficit to 37-35. After a timeout, the Rebels put together a 7-2 run, capped by an and-1 basket by sophomore Josh Jensen, that gave South its biggest lead of the game at 44-37 with 4:31 left. A Trivisonno basket off of a steal brought the Greenmen within 44-42, but Drew and Lamb traded buckets to build South’s lead back to seven points. But the final couple minutes of the game became a painful lesson in what it takes to finish off a win. “That one is going to sting,” South coach Doug Barber said. “We played pretty good for three and a half quarters, well enough to win. But ultimately we just didn’t finish very well. “We took a couple bad shots with under four minutes that we can’t take in that situation. Then the turnovers, not catching with two hands, not looking it in, and at the foul line, too. I think we were (8 of 16) in the third and fourth quarters.” Drew, who is one of just three seniors on the Rebels’ roster, led all scorers with 17 points, and added seven rebounds and four steals. Lamb added 12 points and Sy had 10, to give South three double-digit scorers. Barber said the missed layup was kind of a microcosm of the season for his team, which is almost where he’d like it to be, but can’t quite get over the proverbial hump. “(Drew) played really well, and like I said our team played well for three and a half quarters,” Barber said. “We’re going to learn from it, and the next time we’re in this situation, we’ll respond better.” South’s next opportunity to take the floor will be Dec. 31, in a 2 p.m. game at Gilmour. THE SCORE Aurora 51, South 50 ...read more read less