Marshall's 18 lift Tiger Cubs over Southmont

Saturday, February 21, 2009

CRAWFORDSVILLE -- It was an exciting night at Southmont High School with a boy's Varsity Basketball contest against the visiting Greencastle Tiger Cubs.

After an intense second half, the Tiger Cubs earned a 59-57 victory over the Mounties dropping them to 5-13 and elevating Greencastle to 6-11.

The Tiger Cubs started out strong, besting the Mounties 14-8 in the first quarter. The Mounties took a lead of 8-5, but did not score again after Greencastle's Justin Bartrum hit a three with 2:50 left to play. Ashton Marshall added four points with a bucket and two free throws and Nick Hutcheson had a basket.

The Mounties got it together in the second quarter but were still outscored 16-14. Greencastle's Wade Huber started things off with the first of five three pointers he would make on the night, three in the second quarter.

Hutcheson and Kyle Harlan put up two points each and Marshall ended the quarter with a three. At halftime the score was 30-22 in favor of Greencastle.

The Tiger Cubs lost some momentum in the third quarter and their lead dropped. Southmont outscored them 19-15 in the third quarter. The Mounties took the lead temporarily in that quarter when, with 3:10 left to play, Austin Burton was fouled making a basket and then sunk his free throw to make the score 39-38.

The Tiger Cubs quickly got it back though with a basket from Kyle Nobles and they stayed in front with a three from Huber and two free throws from Bartrum.

The Mounties continued to fight hard in the fourth quarter, but the Tiger Cubs managed to stay one step ahead of them for most of it.

The first five points of the quarter for Greencastle came from the foul line. Marshall got sent to the line three times, compiling four points and Bartrum went to the line for one. Bartrum's free throw broke a 49-all tie set by Southmont's Cody Van Scoyoc with 4:51 left to play.

Greencastle held on to its slim lead until there was 23.2 left to play when Southmont took the lead with a three-pointer from Burton. Huber saved the day for the Tiger Cubs knocking down another three with 1.1 left.

"(Our game tonight) was a game of spurts. We had some really good spurts and some really bad (ones)," said Greencastle head coach Troy Greenlee. "I told the guys that they did a great job of hanging in there when we weren't playing as well. It looked the whole second half like it was going to come down to the final (minutes).

"I was getting a little concerned that we seemed to be hitting one out of two [free throws] and they were hitting both of theirs, but we were hitting enough to keep ourselves right there and a couple possessions at the end of the game were the difference.

"Wade (Huber) hit a huge shot and I was just really happy for him," Greenlee concluded

Greencastle will play their last conference game tonight against North Putnam at 7:30 p.m.

At Southmont

Southmont 8 14 19 16 -- 57

Greencastle 14 16 15 14 -- 59

Southmont -- Van Scoyoc 10, Murray 11, Paris 7, Burton 8, Burkett 14, Long 3, Truncone 2, Rhoads 2

Greencastle -- Nobles 4, Hickam 6, Bartrum 6, Marshall 18, Hutcheson 8, Huber 15, Harlan 2