Menu
Monrovia ‘wanted it more,’ defeats Tiger Cubs 55-31
MONROVIA — Greencastle limited Monrovia leading scorer Luke Smith to more than nine points under his average on Thursday night in boys’ high school basketball action.
The rest of the Bulldogs picked up the slack, however, and the hosts cruised to a 55-31 win over the Tiger Cubs, who lost for the third time in the last four games after winning four of five prior to that stretch.
“They wanted it more than we did in every aspect,” Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “Especially on the boards. That’s an area that we take great pride in, and we have won the rebounding battle in almost every game this year. It wasn’t that way in this game.”
Greencastle began the game slowly, using up nearly two minutes on its first possession before getting a Gavin Bollman basket with 5:41 left in the first quarter for the first points of the game.
The Tiger Cubs tried to go inside against the taller Bulldogs and found open players, but shots were either passed up or were off target.
“We were not aggressive at all,” Rector said. “We were lazy and lackadaisical, and that’s on the coaches. We have to do a better job of getting them ready.”
Monrovia led 12-7 after one quarter and edged that lead up to 20-12 at halftime.
Greencastle’s Colin York did all he could to keep his team in the game in the third period, hitting four of five 3-pointers to put the margin at 38-26 at the final stop.
The Bulldogs won the final period 17-5 with little resistance from Greencastle, improving their record to 9-7 (3-1 against Putnam County teams, with their only loss a 74-71 defeat at Cloverdale).
Rector had hoped to enter next weekend’s county tournament with his team coming off two good performances, and now he’ll have to settle for the possibility of just one if the Tiger Cubs get things together Saturday at Brown County.
The Tiger Cubs won 55-42 at Brown County last month, but the Eagles were without 6-10 center Josh Cochran.
“They have some size, and they are a solid team,” he said. “We just hit some shots on them last time. We need to come out and have good practices the rest of this week.
“We hope we can go to Brown County and take care of business there, heading into a big weekend with the county.”
GREENCASTLE (31) — York 5-13 3-3 18, N.Costin 2-9 0-0 5, Bollman 1-1 0-0 2, Matthews 1-5 0-0 2, Clar 1-1 0-0 2, Hutcheson 1-2 0-0 2, A.Costin 0-3 0-0 0, Lucas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 11-36 FG, 3-3 FT, 31 TP
MONROVIA (55) — Smith 4-9 2-2 12, Seber 4-7 0-0 9, Newman 7-9 0-0 15, McCloud 1-4 0-0 3, Whitaker 1-1 0-0 2, Cottrell 0-0 0-0 0, Seals 0-2 2-2 2, Stader 3-3 1-1 7, Sprague 1-3 1-2 3, Eller 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 22-40 FG, 5-6 FT, 55 TP
Greencastle 7 5 14 5 — 31
Monrovia 12 8 18 17 — 55
3-point shooting — Greencastle 6-17 (York 5-11, N.Costin 1-4, A.Costin 0-2), Monrovia 6-17 (Smith 2-5, Seber 1-2, Newman 1-2, McCloud 1-4, Seals 0-2, Stader 1-1). Rebounds — Monrovia 29 (Newman 10), Greencastle 15 (N.Costin 3)..