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Shooting woes plague Tiger Cubs in loss to Lebanon
LEBANON — After watching Greencastle’s Colin York score two-thirds of his team’s points on Friday, Lebanon coach Albert Hendrix was not going to let that happen against his team.
Hendrix devised an effective defensive scheme that limited York to nine points on just eight shots, and Lebanon was able to record a 43-28 victory over the Tiger Cubs in the Sectional 25 championship game.
The Lebanon strategy hinged upon the rest of the Tiger Cubs not shooting well from the field, and unfortunately for them that’s exactly how things played out.
“They were really good defensively,” Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “They did a really nice job on Colin, and they weren’t going to let him beat them. We played good defense also, to allow us to stay in the game.”
The Tigers started possessions in the first half in a man-to-man alignment, then had a player leave his man to go double-team York when he got the ball.
A very low-scoring first quarter saw the Tiger Cubs take a 5-4 lead at the first stop. York scored the first basket of the game, and Benton Parmley added a trey with 1:22 left in the period.
The Tiger Cubs got clicking with a 13-point second quarter, their only double-digit effort of the night, to take an 18-17 halftime lead.
Parmley and York each hit a trey in the period but the star of the quarter was freshman Nick Sutherlin, who scored the other seven points.
A Sutherlin putback of a Parmley miss with 3:19 left in the half put Greencastle ahead 18-11, but the Tigers scored the final six points of the half and the momentum was starting to turn.
Lebanon had used a 1-2-2 full-court press to pull out a comeback win over Southmont in the semifinals on Friday night, and brought that alignment out again with repeated success.
York fed Gavin Bollman for a basket and then hit a short jumper with 4:07 left in the third period, and the Tiger Cubs were clinging to a 22-19 lead.
Lebanon took the lead for good on a trey from Jaden Jarrett and two consecutive baskets from Carson Burtron for a 26-22 advantage with 1:56 left in the third period.
Lebanon led 30-26 at the final stop, and took a 33-26 lead early in the final period on a basket and free throw by Kye Zimmerman.
Bollman scored on a putback with 6:03 for Greencastle’s last points of the game, and the Tigers scored the final 10 points (eight from the free-throw line).
“They did a nice job of slowing us down,” Rector said. “We just never really got in a rhythm offensively. Once they got a little bit of a lead, we couldn’t make any kind of a comeback because of our inability to get the ball up the floor and go.”
Greencastle finished with a 17-8 record, more than doubling its win total from Rector’s first season in charge of the program.
York and Jack Hutcheson both graduate, but the Tiger Cubs will return the other nine of their 11 players on the tourney roster — four of which are just freshmen.
“This was not where we wanted to end by any means,” Rector said. “But for us to go from eight wins last year to 17 this year is a great improvement.
“We have a lot of nice pieces coming back, but it’s going to be hard to replace Colin,” he added. “He’s one of the best players ever to come through this program. Jack did the things for our program that did not show up in the scorebook or in the newspaper, with his energy and his ability to defend.”
LEBANON (43) — Washington 7-9 5-5 19, Jarrett 2-2 2-2 7, Zimmerman 1-2 1-1 3, K.Burtron 1-1 0-1 2, Reese 0-0 0-0 0, C.Burtron 5-9 2-2 12. Totals 16-26 FG, 10-10 FT, 43 TP
GREENCASTLE (28) — C.York 4-8 0-1 9, Bollman 2-7 0-0 6, Whitaker 0-8 0-0 0, Parmley 2-7 0-0 6, Hutcheson 0-0 0-0 0, Sutherlin 3-8 1-2 7, Plew 0-0 0-0 0, Alexander 0-0 0-0 0, Baxter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-38 FG, 1-3 FT, 28 TP
Lebanon 4 13 13 13 — 43
Greencastle 5 13 8 2 — 28
3-point shooting — Lebanon 1-6 (Washington 0 -1, Jarrett 1-1, C.Burtron 0-4), Greencastle 3-16 (C.York 1-3, Whitaker 0-6, Parmley 2-6, Sutherlin 0-1).
