Patrick Green Previews Newberry’s Regional Semifinal

The Newberry Panthers (15-8) boy’s basketball team is headed to Hilliard to play the Red Flashes (22-2) in the Class 1A Regional Semifinals at 7 p.m.

Panthers head coach Patrick Green joined Steve Russell on Sport Scene to talk about his team heading into the game.

Previous Matchups

These two teams played each other twice in the regular season and split the series 1-1. The Panthers won the first matchup 78-69. Newberry’s sophomore duo Henry Mathias and Juwan Scippio combined for 43 in that game. Hillard’s top scorers were junior CJ Hall, senior Malcom Warthen and senior Brandyn Seldomridge. who had 20, 18 and 17, respectively.

In the second game, the Red Flashes squeaked out a 63-61 win. Hall, Warthen and Seldomridge were once again Hillard’s top scorers who had 15, 20 and 13. Scippio had another big game for Newberry with 23, and junior Logan Mccloud came up big with 19.

Heading into the Game

Newberry Injuries

The Panthers have dealt with a few injuries which makes it even more important for players to step up.

“Unfortunately, because we’re a little banged up, it’s probably going about 10, 11 guys that we’re rotating right now,” Green said.

Being in a ‘win or go home’ environment, the team will need to look to guys that it normally doesn’t look to in order to get the win.

Coach Green talking about teams depth due to injuries:

Playing as a Team

In both those previous games against Hilliard the Panthers had seven players who scored. In their last two games, the team has had nine or more players score.

“I’ve seen those bench guys there lately be locked in a little bit more than they have in the past,” Green said.

This is something that Green has noticed as the season progressed. The team has improved on playing together as a team.

Coach Green talks about the bench stepping up:

The Panthers have become more comfortable under the system that they are playing under. In the team’s last five games, they have either won big or lost close. In that span, Newberry had a 41 point win over Belleview, with their largest loss being only three points to Gainesville. Their most recent game was a 76-74 overtime loss to Hawthorne.

Coach Green talks about the team improvement:

Hilliard will host Newberry at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The winner will face the winner of Fort White at Hawthorne in the regional finals on Tuesday at 7 p.m.