Tri-West gets by Tiger Cubs

Greencastle controlled the first half of play against Tri-West on Saturday night in boys’ high school basketball action, leading 23-17 at the intermission.

The Bruins were coming off an emotional victory over county foe Danville on Friday night, and were playing without second-leading scorer Peyton Hendershot (on a football visit to Penn State).

Tri-West got itself turned around at halftime, though, and came out with a ferocious full-court press in the third period to take command and coast to a 52-36 win.

Greencastle got production from its three leading scorers in the opening period, as Colin York and Gavin Bollman each had four points and Nick Costin contributed three in taking an 11-5 lead after one period.

Tri-West pulled even at 17-17 on a 3-pointer by Judd Grubbs with 1:46 left in the half, but Greencastle got a Costin trey, a Bollman free throw and a York basket to take the six-point halftime lead.

Then, it hit. The Bruins forced Greencastle into five third-period turnovers, and the hosts were only able to hit 1 of 8 shots when they did get the ball upcourt.

“They did a good job of coming out and making an adjustment at halftime, and we didn’t’ respond well to it,” Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “Our guys were a little soft against their press; that’s a team that if you’re soft against them, they’re going to make you pay for it.”

Greencastle managed just a basket and a free throw from Bollman and a Costin free throw in the third quarter, after which Tri-West had a 35-27 lead.

The guests scored the first seven points of the final period, however, for a 15-point lead that only got as low as 13 once..

Rector knew the Bruins would overcome the absence of Hendershot and another Bruin starter.

“It doesn’t matter who’s there or not there for them, Rector said. “That’s a team that knows what it wants to do offensively and defensively, and they execute those things well. This was a good challenge for us.”

Rector thought Tri-West’s pressure forced his team to hurry, which was undoubtedly the desired outcome for Bruin coach Adam Bontrager.

“I think it surprised our guys at first and got us out of rhythm,” he said. “But after a while we started to handle it better.

“We have to work on going against it in practice,” he added. “It affected our offense some, also, but I thought in the first half we had some good flow.”

Bollman led the Tiger Cubs with 12 points and 17 rebounds, while Costin and York each added nine points.

Tyler Watson led Tri-West with 19 points.

TRI-WEST (52) — Watson 7-20 3-3 19, Chinn 2-7 0-0 4, Blake 4-8 0-0 10, Wiggins 4-10 0-0 8, Grubbs 4-7 0-0 9, Lucas 1-6 0-0 2, Kiefer 0-0 0-0 0, Fulton 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 22-59 FG, 3-3 FT, 52 TP

GREENCASTLE (36) — York 3-11 2-2 9, N.Costin 3-9 2-4 9, Bollman 5-9 2-7 12, Matthews 1-3 1-2 3, Clar 0-0 1-2 1, Hutcheson 0-1 0-0 0, A.Costin 0-2 2-2 2, Lucas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-36 FG, 10-16 FT, 36 TP

Tri-West 5 12 18 17 — 52

Greencastle 11 12 4 9 — 36

3-point shooting — TW 5-15 (Watson 2-5, Chinn 0-1, Blake 2-3, Grubbs 1-3, Lucas 0-3), G 2-8 (York 1-4, N.Costin 1-2, A.Costin 0-2). Turnovers — Greencastle 16, Tri-West 8.

Next game — Greencastle (5-10) plays at Monrovia on Thursday. Tri-West improved to 14-3.