Tiger Cubs drop second in a row with loss to Vikings

Monday, January 12, 2009

The Greencastle Boy's varsity basketball team faced off against sectional rival West Vigo in a regular season double header game at McAnally Center Saturday night. The Tiger Cubs win-loss record became 3-5 after being defeated by the Vikings 61-46.

"I thought we competed well which is... always number one in my book," said Greencastle's head coach Troy Greenlee. "Secondly I thought...We had some good shots, we shot them with confidence, [but] they just didn't go in the hole... overall I thought our floor game was pretty good."

Both teams started out with 3-point buckets. Greencastle's Ashton Marshall struck first a minute into the first quarter. Half a minute later West Vigo's Jordan Pearson answered back with a 3-pointer of his own. Except for a free throw shot by Viking Jeremy Lucas, Greencastle scored the next five points of the game. Jordan Hickam scored three of those points when he was fouled shooting a basket, which he made, then sinking his free throw. The other two points were scored by Kyle Nobles.

The Vikings took the rest of the quarter with six points, making the score 10-8 after one quarter.

The Tiger Cubs' scoring drought continued for the first 2.30 of the second quarter, with West Vigo able to increase their lead to 18. Then Tyler Lewis put up three points for Greencastle when he was fouled shooting and made his free throw. After Lewis' three point play, the Tiger Cubs cut the Viking lead to two after a 3-pointer by Wade Huber and a bucket by Hickam with 4.31 left to play.

After two free throws by West Vigo's Tyler Wampler, both teams scored three more times. For Greencastle there were two baskets by Marshall and one by Kyle Harlan. West Vigo had two baskets by Wampler, and Pearson capped off the second quarter with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the half-time score 27-22 in favor of West Vigo.

In the third quarter, Greencastle struck first when Nick Hutcheson started his night as Greencastle's leading scorer. He would score 12 points by the end of the game, 10 of which were in the third quarter.

Hickam and Justin Bartrum also contributed four points in the third quarter.

Greencastle actually outscored the Vikings on the third as West Vigo only scored 13 points while the Tiger Cubs had 14.

But in the fourth quarter the Vikings came back outscoring the Tiger Cubs 21-10.

"They had a couple of guards who were tough to guard and you have to give them a lot of credit for that," Greenlee said. Wampler and Pearson "really can create their own shots and create for their teammates [too] and that made it hard for us to guard. [But] I think everyone who played [for us] tonight made a contribution. I thought Nick really established himself on the inside tonight which was important to see. If we can continue to get an inside/outside type game I think we'll be able to improve through the year."

Greencastle's JV squad defeated the Vikings JV team 42-40.

Greencastle will host South Putnam Friday night at McAnally Center. The boy's game will follow the girl's game which starts at 6 p.m.

At Greencastle

Greencastle 8 14 14 10 -- 46

West Vigo 10 17 13 21 -- 61

Greencastle -- Marshall 9, Nobles 2, Hickam 7, Lewis 3, Huber 5, Harlan 2, Hutcheson 12, Bartrum 6

West Vigo -- Pearson 18, Lucas 8, Modesitt 7, Wampler 20, Thornton 3, West 5

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