Tiger Cubs claim 'bucket' in battle of county finalists

Saturday, December 8, 2007

CLOVERDALE -- With three players scoring in double figures, the Greencastle Tiger Cubs secured the county bucket with a 57-42 win over Cloverdale.

"It was a great win," GHS head coach Troy Greenlee said. "Being only our second game, we still in that stage of trying to get some rhythm going. As far as being happy with a win, you're always happy with a win."

Greencastle opened the game on fire, jumping out to a 14-3 lead over the home Clovers.

Greencastle junior Drew Evens pulls down a rebound in Friday's 57-42 win over Cloverdale.

Greencastle's Drew Evens was four of five in the opening quarter to lead the Tiger Cubs, but it was two long bombs from Austin Miller that extended the lead. After one, the Tiger Cubs lead 19-9.

The second quarter was a draw, with the Clovers outscoring the Tiger Cubs 9-8. Greencastle ended the half leading 27-18.

In the third quarter, both squads traded blows and ended the quarter with each scoring 13 points. Evens and Brennan Burks accounted for all of the GHS points. Blair scored eight of the Clovers 13 points.

The fourth quarter was a matter of sustaining the lead, which Greencastle did, and then some.

Evens continued his strong play from the previous quarter and dropped in an additional eight points in the final quarter.

Cloverdale mounted a slight charge, but ultimately fell short. Blair scored a game-high 27 points to lead Cloverdale.

With an opposing player going off for 27 points most coaches would be unhappy with his teams defense but Greenlee acknowledged the talent of Blair and was more than pleased with the effort in guarding him.

"I really thought that Ashton Marshall did a really good job guarding (Craig) Blair. We wanted to try to make him work for what he got and I thought Ashton really did a good job of that," he said.

With his team struggling on all fronts, Cloverdale head coach Pat Rady focused in on what his team needs to address to be heading in the right direction.

"I think all aspects of the game," he said. " Tonight we just got beat by a very good basketball team. Greencastle was hitting on all cylinders, I thought that last week against South Putnam. They are playing very well right now. They have great quickness, they have good ball movement and they play good defense and it's going to take a good team to beat them.

"First of all you have to cut down on turnovers. We have to do a better job of shot selection, I think we took some shots that weren't very good shots.

Cloverdale's Craig Blair fouls Greencastle's Kendall Faust (24).

Hopefully we can get better defensively and rebounding. We need to do a better job of blocking out and executing the fundamentals," Rady commented.

The Tiger Cubs have played only two games in this young season, winning both, but Greenlee believes the best is yet to come for his team. He spoke of his team's defensive efforts and the way his offense moved the ball but with time comes confidence and the ability to gel.

"Being only our second game, we still in that stage of trying to get some rhythm going," he commented. "As far as being happy with a win, you're always happy with a win. The only thing that I was really disappointed in was at times we didn't respond well on the floor. Not necessarily the turnovers we made but the way responded to those turnovers. That was really the only negative thing I saw tonight.

"We got a ways to go but it was a good win to build on," Greenlee commented with a smile

Greencastle (2-0, 1-0 WCC) will hit the road to face Sullivan at 8 p.m. today, while the Clovers (2-2, 0-1 WCC) will host Clay City at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

At Cloverdale

Greencastle 19 8 13 17 -- 57

Cloverdale 9 9 13 11 -- 42

Greencastle -- Evens 22, Burks 15, Miller 10, Huber 4, Faust 4, Ashton Marshall 2. Totals: FG 24-46 FT 3-9 TP 57.

Cloverdale -- Blair 27, Moon 7, Dean 4, Young 2, Randall 2. Totals: FG 16-45 FT 0-6 TP 42.

Next game -- Greencastle will hit the road to face Sullivan at 8 p.m. today, while the Clovers will host Clay City at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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