Southridge's Drew Groenig scored 24 points on 8-for14 shooting with five 3-pointers in Friday's 59-52 win at Mountainside.

BEAVERTON — Southridge senior guard Drew Groenig had the hot hand Friday night.

Groenig scored 14 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, leading the No. 3 Skyhawks to a 59-52 Metro League road win over the Mountainside Mavericks at Mountainside High School.

Elijah Thompson finished with 15 points and Brooks Fortune and Ryder Zanon added six each to help the Skyhawks (14-4, 4-1 Metro) regain a share of first place in the league standings.

“All wins on the road in the Metro League are big wins,” Southridge coach Phil Vesel said. “I joked with my guys, I said, ‘It’s not a beauty contest. You’re trying to stack wins.’ 

“When you can go on the road in a great environment with a big crowd and get a win, you feel good about it. And then you move on to the next game and see if you can get better.”

Mountainside’s Rogen Brown scored a team-high 14 points, while Kobi Nicholson and Eli Vizconde finished with 12 points each for the Mavericks (10-7, 2-3).

“I was proud of the grit we showed and the fight,” Mountainside coach Dustin Hewitt said. “Southridge had us on the ropes a little bit and we bowed our back and started swinging back a little bit. We just couldn’t close the gap.

“We struggled at the simple things tonight — free throws, being in the right spot when we’re trying to execute a play, and making simple passes. That’s what really hurt us. The good news is that stuff is fixable.”

Mountainside had a tremendous turnout for its “Stuff The Stable Night” — a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation — and filled almost every seat in the gym , creating an atmosphere that is normally reserved for state tournament games in March.

Southridge showed up with two key players — Julius Vesel, the coach’s son, and Thompson, the team’s floor leader and leading scorer — coming off separate bouts of flu-like symptoms. Vesel had been running a fever that kept him out of Tuesday’s 94-47 rout of Sunset, while Thompson hadn’t practiced Wednesday or Thursday and was questionable to play Friday.

Fortunately for the Skyhawks, Groenig answered the bell, picking up where he had left off in Tuesday’s win over Sunset when he torched the Apollos for 30 points.

Groenig spread out his scoring against Mountainside, getting four points in the first quarter, six in the second, five in the third, and nine in the fourth. He finished the game going 8 for 14 from the field, including 5 for 9 from three-point range. He also went 3 for 4 at the free-throw line.

“We had a couple of guys tonight that were dragging and struggling a little bit, so it was great to see our senior captain fill that void and knock down some big shots,” Vesel said.

Groenig’s first 3-pointer of the game capped a 10-0 run to start the second quarter that gave Southridge a 27-18 lead.

His second 3-pointer made it 32-21 just before halftime.

The third one pushed the Skyhawks’ lead to 44-33 with 1:40 left in the third quarter.

Finally, he connected twice from long range in the fourth quarter, the final one giving Southridge a 57-48 lead with just under two minutes to play.

“Drew hit some timely shots,” Vesel said. “He shoots it so well all the time. In games, it’s tough sometimes to always find rhythm, but these last few games, he’s shooting close to 40 percent from 3-point range. 

“When he gets his feet set, he shoots a really high percentage. We’ve kind of been waiting for some breakout games like this for him. And I’m happy for him that he got ‘em, because he works his tail off to produce in these moments.”

Most of Mountainside’s defensive game plan was directed toward Thompson, the 6-1 junior guard who typically sets the Skyhawks’ high-scoring offense in motion.

“Against Elijah, we really tried to shut him down,” Hewitt said. “I thought Palmer Ochoa did an admirable job staying in front of him. You guard Elijah full court, and you stay in front of him, and you get over a screen, and you’re still in front of him, and then he hits a fadeaway. It’s just like, you’ve burned a lot of calories there and this kid still hit a really hard shot. 

“Those are kind of back-breakers. So, credit to him. He’s a really good player.”

But what about Groenig? What was the plan for him?

“You can’t guard everything,” Hewitt said. “The downside was Drew got loose. I’ve seen him play enough to know when he sees one or two go in, you can bank on the next one or two going in. He had it going tonight, for sure.”

Mountainside started strong, jumping to an 18-17 lead in the first quarter on 4-for-4 shooting from 3-point range — two by Brown, one by Vizconde, and another by Baylor Hanson.

Then the Mavericks came away empty on their first eight possessions of the second quarter, Southridge went on its 10-0 run that ended with a Groenig 3-pointer, and the Skyhawks maintained at least a five-point lead the rest of the way.

“The atmosphere was great, we got shots going, and we played well as a team,” Groenig said. “The crowd was a big factor in the first quarter, but then we settled in and Mountainside started missing some shots.

“I felt good. Shots started falling and that’s always a good feeling.”

When Mountainside’s Ryder Eck scored to cut Southridge's lead to 46-40 and Zanon, the Skyhawks’ 6-8 senior center, went to the bench with his fourth foul with 6:35 to play in the fourth quarter, it looked as if the Mavericks still had time to make a final run.

They got within five points twice — the last time on a basket by Nicholson that made it 51-46 with 3:02 left — but that was as close as they got.

“The door was ajar there and we couldn’t quite get through it,” Hewitt said. “But that’s a very good team and I’m proud of the effort we have. We’ve just got to clean up the small stuff.

“The nice part is we’ve got about a month left and our goal is to be playing our best basketball in late February. This group is extremely resilient and extremely coachable and I’m confident that they’ll get there. Do I wish we were a little ahead of schedule? Yes, but knowing that this group is so coachable, I think we’ll get to where we want to get to.”

In other Metro action Friday, Beaverton stunned No. 5 Jesuit 48-47, while No. 6 Westview won 74-56 at Sunset. That leaves Jesuit, Southridge, and Westview tied atop the league standings at 4-1, followed by Mountainside and Beaverton at 2-3.

That also sets the stage for Tuesday’s Southridge-Jesuit clash at Jesuit to close out the first half of league play.

Said Vesel: “(Jesuit coach) Gene Potter does a great job — one of the best  coaches if not the best coach in the state. So, they’ll have a great game plan and they’ll be tough to play against. It’s a great opportunity for our guys to see if we can compete for a league title.”