By Michael Kinney
MIDWEST CITY -- Embarrassing. That was the one word Southmoore coach Wes Brown used over and over to describe his team's performance Saturday after they were throttled 67-31 by Midwest City in the Regional Championship.
"We got outplayed, outhustled by a team that is far superior than us," Brown said. "That's all you can say. They beat us in every phase of the game. I have no excuses. We were beat."
The loss the was third against the Bombers this season. However, while the previous two contests were competitive, this one never reached that level.
"From opening tip to the end, we had no answer for what they were doing," Brown said. "We just basically got kicked around. And they made us like it."
Midwest City began the game on a 11-0 run before Southmoore had even broken a sweat. Despite the players saying they would be ready for the game, they didn't come out that way.
MWC led 21-9 at the end of the first quarter.
While the Cats lacked intensity, the Bombers seemed to take every possession as a personal challenge. They attacked Southmoore defensively with aggression and anger, and the Cats didn't know how to respond.
The Cats picked up their pace in the second quarter and got the score to within 10 points on a couple of trips. But each time the Bombers answered by draining a 3-pointer or making a tough shot.
Trailing 39-20, Southmoore went into halftime angry and in disbelief.
"That's how we are now," Brown said. "That's the way we have been the last several games. You can't go out there and float around, not play hard and just expect one guy to get rebounds."
Southmoore's only advantage over MWC was Austin Haywood inside. But as in previous matchups, his teammates couldn't get the ball inside to him.
Nothing the SaberCats tried worked as the Bombers emptied their bench with three minutes left in the game and cruised to an easy win.
"We are just not a very good team right now," Brown said. "It doesn't matter what I say or what I tell them. I can't motivate them to play hard for some reason. I don't know how you can't get motivated to play hard in the playoffs. It's pretty disappointing right now."
Haywood led the Cats with 12 points. Kale Holeman added 9.
"I had one guy that played extremely hard the whole game. That was Austin Haywood. He played as hard as he could play the whole time. But I didn't have anyone to match his intensity. And his hustle. You can't do it with one guy."
The Bombers got 19 points from Trez Colbert. Trael Colbert chipped in with 14.
Both teams still advance to the Area tournament next week, but Southmoore has no room for error. Their next game will be a loser go home scenario at 8 p.m. Friday against Lawton High at Edmond Memorial. The winner advances to face the loser of the Putnam City West/Putnam City matchup for a spot in the state quarterfinals.
Brown doesn't know if his team will be ready.
"It just doesn't look like they even care," Brown said. "That's pretty hard to accept as a head coach. They are going to have to do some soul searching. That was embarrassing. They had to be embarrassed in that game. If that didn't embarrass them, if they think that was funny, then they don't deserve to win another basketball game. We have one more game. If we don't hook up, get our mind right and get ready to play or we will be through the next night."
