Greencastle's season comes to a close against Patriots

SPENCER -- Mental toughness.

To win in tournament play a team must have that mental toughness, when facing tougher competition. Going into Wednesday night's class 3A sectional game against Owen Valley, Greencastle coach Troy Greenlee knew that this was going to be an issue.

What he didn't realize, though, was how big of a factor it would be in the game. The Tiger Cubs were outplayed on both ends of the floor and fell to the Patriots by a final of 72-46.

"We need to change our way of thinking. Our kids aren't mentally tough enough to play against the schools in our sectional," said Greenlee. "They have to learn that they can come here and compete and win.

"That is something we definitely have to work on in the offseason."

Going into the match-up, Greenlee said he knew his team was going to have to put most of it focus on University of Indianapolis recruit Cody Vest. At 6'7'' they were focused on keeping him from shooting inside the paint.

With the inside of the paint clogged with Tiger Cubs, though, Vest moved out to behind the arc burring five three-pointers. With 35 points on the night, Vest almost scored as many points as the entire Tiger Cub lineup.

"He was a big key to their win tonight," said Greenlee.

A slow start and only shooting 30 percent on the night hurt the Tiger Cubs in the end. Leading the way was sophomore Nick Hutcheson with nine points. All nine of his points came in the second half.

Greencastle stayed close to the Patriots in the first quarter as they clawed their way back from a early hole to only be down seven going into the second quarter. At the 5:50 mark of the second half, Greenlee called timeout to try and rally the Tiger Cubs.

From that point on, though, the Patriots went on an 19 to 7 run to close out the half, led by Vest draining four three pointers.

Greencastle ended the season with a record of 6 and 14.

At Owen Valley

Owen Valley 17 21 18 16 --72

Greencastle 10 9 13 14 -- 46

Individual Stats

Owen Valley (72) -- Vest 35, Gilstrap 9, Christenberry 8, White 7, Hollows 4, D. Vest 3, Hight 2, Ray 2. Totals: 25-40 FG, 15-19 FT, 72 TP.

Greencastle (46) -- Hutcheson 9, Huber 6, Hickam 6, Stuckwisch 6, Lewis 6, Hennette 5, Carr 4, Embry 3, Moore 1. Totals: 16-53 FG, 10-14 FT, 46 TP.