SPRINGBORO — Coming off a 20-point drubbing by West Carrollton on Tuesday, the youthful Springboro boys basketball team wanted to prove a point.

The Panthers did just that Friday, showing they still have plenty of roar by claiming a 65-57 win over Xenia and improving to 3-1, 2-1 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference South.

“Xenia is a good team,” Springboro’s 6-foot-10 sophomore Maverick Morgan said. “We are a really young team, but we needed to make a statement. We didn’t want people to say we were lucky to win the two games.”

Until the second half, it looked like Xenia was going to remain on top of the GWOC South. Springboro led 29-27 at halftime after the two teams had been separated by four points or less for the entire half.

“We knew we were going to get their best tonight,” Xenia coach Kent Anderson said after his squad fell to 1-2, 1-1. “We were fine when we were even or behind, but then we got to where we were chasing them.”

Springboro built the lead to 31-27 on two of Collin Maher’s six points with 4:22 left in the third quarter, but Xenia came back to tie at 33 on a basket by Cody Phillips. Springboro’s Josh Davis began a personal run to help the Panthers push the lead to 40-33 with :27 left.

“The one run they had late in the third quarter really, really hurt us,” Anderson said.

Xenia got within 51-46, but Springboro quickly got the lead back to nine.

Morgan led the Panthers with 14 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots. Josh Davis added 10 points and Matt Delbridge and Jack Mapes both had 13 off the bench.

Morgan and the 6-6 Maher were also able to corral Xenia’s Terry Blythe and Andrew Bolka. Blythe, who came in averaging 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds, was held to 10 points and three rebounds while blocking four shots. Bolka (17.5 and 11.5) finished with six points and 13 boards.

“That’s what they do,” Springboro coach Troy Holtrey said. “They are very good at getting the ball where they want to.”

“We got the looks we wanted, the shots just didn’t fall,” Anderson said. “We’ve got to be stronger and do a better job finishing.”