Most of the Southern Regional boys basketball players who made it onto the court during the first few minutes of its opener against Jackson Memorial on Dec. 17 hadn’t experienced high-tempo varsity action, and it showed.

The Rams turned over the ball several times and struggled to adjust to the Jaguars’ aggressive defense. And despite Jackson’s five fouls within the first 3½ minutes of the season, Southern was down by 10 points and hadn’t scored yet.

“We can’t replicate Jackson’s speed and athleticism in practice, even though we tried our hardest to do it, so we just…