AFFTON • When facing the Affton boys at home, don't be surprised if the 3s fly all evening long.
"They've got four guys out there who can shoot it," Lutheran South coach Brian Lind said of the Cougars. "And they've got a fifth guy, that when he gets hot, he can hit, too. For about seven minutes, I think all five of them were hitting shots."
Though it trailed the entire first half, Affton heated up from beyond the arc in the second half and grabbed a one-point lead midway through the third period. But the bigger South squad, paced by a 26-point effort by Brandon Downey, banged away inside to come away with an 81-73 victory.
South improved to 11-12. Affton, which got a team-high 22 from Sean Benedict and 21 from Halid Abera, fell to 12-10.
Affton hit 10 of 30 3-point shots on the night. Two from Benedict, and one each from Abera and John Brannan helped the Cougars pull ahead 40-39 midway through the third.
"I've got five or six guys who have the green light," Affton coach Mike Fitzgerald said. "If they are open at the 3-point line, they let it rip. I bought a Shoot-away machine this year with the big net. After practice, I have to turn the lights off to get them out of the gym."
But Downey and teammate Parker VanNest, who scored 20 points -- 18 in the second half -- knew if the Lancers were patient, Affton would eventually cool off.
"We just had to start guarding them closer and getting our hands in their face," VanNest said. "And block out stronger so we could get all the rebounds."
Affton outscored the Lancers 27-16 in the third to lead 50-49 heading to the fourth quarter. But Lind told his team to stick with the game plan: Be patient and run the offense.
"When a team's on a heater like that, wait, and make sure you're blocking out," Lind said. "They're going to miss a couple. You just have to keep you're composure
"To our guys credit, they started taking the ball to the rim instead of trying to match them from the perimeter."
VanNest, who scored just two points in the first half, was happy to break out in the second.
"The first half was a struggle," VanNest said. "I couldn't hit anything. Being guarded man-to-man was kind of tough. Second half, I decided to run off some screens and shoot the ball. The team was helping me out with some good passes."
Downey picked up most of his season-high total inside.
"We just kept moving the ball and setting screens," he said. "We just set good back screens on them, and I kept moving to the baseline."
