Greencastle wins 7th grade championship over Cloverdale

The Greencastle seventh grade basketball team defeated Cloverdale Wednesday to win the Putnam County title. Members of the team include Kevin Bland, Jesse Anderson, Nathan Gobert, Noach Cook, Devin Clar, Rylan Lucas, J.T. Matthews, Nick Costin, Tyler Edwards, Duke Duff, Brandon Workman, Spencer Rhine, head coach Dave Stephens, assistant coach Nolan Costin and managers Will Overshiner and Matt Workman.

CLOVERDALE -- The Greencastle Middle School boys' seventh grade basketball team won the first of two county titles Wednesday night, upending host Cloverdale 53-19.

The Tiger Cubs used a swarming defense to force turnovers against the Clovers and converted multiple lay-ups throughout the contest.

Noah Cook led Greencastle with 17 points in the game, with Duke Duff contributing 14. Nick Costin and Devin Clar added eight, while Spencer Rhine scored four and Brandon Workman chipped in two.

Cloverdale was paced by Cooper Neese's 13 points. Aaron Fulkerson, Cameron Kincaid and Zach Nichols added two points each.

Greencastle seventh grade coach Dave Stephens said that the squad played like they have most of the season.

"I was really impressed with our defensive attitude, our pressure and the way we played team defense. That got the ball rolling," Stephens said.

"We were able to get turnovers and play our tempo of game. It helped us get easy shots on the other end which got the score where we wanted it in the first half."

Having a large lead early in the game allowed Greencastle to use most of their squad, which, as Stephens said, was a reward for all of their hard work.

"We always talk about together and team and those guys that don't necessarily get as much playing time, it's nice to reward them because they're working just as hard as everybody else in practice," Stephens said.

"Any chance we get to reward those guys, I feel good about them, because they've earned that time."

With the season at an end, Stephens said that the squad had a remarkable season.

"We were either fifteen or sixteen and two. We played a lot of our traditional rivals and did well against them," Stephens said.

"We were able to beat Jackson Creek, which feeds into Bloomington South. They had some real good wins against schools like Danville," Stephens added.

"We did tonight what we've done most of the season: impose our will defensively, get good transition plays."

"They're a great group of kids. They bought in to what we asked them to do and couldn't be more pleased with them."

At Cloverdale

Greencastle 18 13 16 6 -- 53

Cloverdale 3 5 7 4 -- 19

Individual Scoring

Greencastle -- Cook 17, Duff 14, Costin 8, Clar 8, Rhine 4, Workman 2

Cloverdale -- Neese 13, Fulkerson 2, Kincaid 2, Nichols 2Cloverdale -- Neese 13, Fulkerson 2, Kincaid 2, Nichols 2