MILAN — South Decatur traveled to Milan on an off night to battle the Indians in a make-up contest. The Cougars got off to a slow start, and despite scoring 25 points in the fourth quarter, the Cougars couldn’t make up the early deficit and fell to the Indians 59-53.

Milan, on the other hand, didn’t have a problem getting things going early as they scored the first 10 points of the game.

With 2:20 left to play in the first quarter, the Cougars finally got on the board with a Jared Benge lay-up. South finished the quarter, scoring the last four points of the period. Heading into the second quarter, the Cougars trailed by six points, 12-6.

South started the second stanza much better than the first. With the first possession of the period, the Cougars got within four points of the Indians with a Dustin Snyder acrobatic lay-up.

However, the Indians countered with a 8-2 run and suddenly South was down 10 points, 20-10. The teams played each other even for the remainder of the half and Milan went into the locker room holding a 10 point advantage, 24-14.

South came out in the second half and immediately went to work cutting into the Indian lead. In the first minute-and-a-half, the Cougars had nearly cut Milan’s lead in half. With 6:29 remaining in the period, South only trailed by six, 26-20.

But once again, the Indians pulled back away and by the end of the quarter, they had built their lead up to 11 points, 39-28.

The last eight minutes proved to be the best for the Cougars, as both Benge and Jason Wenning were able to get inside and score against the Milan big men. However, the Indians weren’t about to give up the win as they battled with South to maintain the lead.

The Cougars were able to within three points of the Indians, 51-48, with less then a minute to play, but Milan knocked down enough free-throws at the end to hold on for the victory.

After the game, South coach Joe Hartwell, was pleased with the way his team played the second half and disappointed they didn’t play that way the entire game.

“The guys closed pretty hard tonight. I’m pretty disappointed we didn’t play a full 32 minutes,” said Hartwell. “The first half we played a little too relaxed on defense and kind of let them come out and take it to us.”

He credited his team for continually making an effort to come back so many times.

“The guys did a good job making runs to get back in the game, but we couldn’t seem to get over that hump to take the lead,” added Hartwell.

The reserve Cougars also fell to the home team, 51-42.

Alex Shouse lead the way for South with 14 points. Brad Harrison finished with nine. Ben Wilkerson added seven. Daniel Skinner came in with three. Ryan Einhaus, Josh Ross, Jake Ritchison and Josh England scored two points each and Devin Butler chipped in with one.