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Tiger Cub boys lose tight one at home
The Greencastle boys' basketball team started the 2015 portion of its season with a highly anticipated home match-up with Class 3A No. 18 Danville Friday night.
Having taken the Tiger Cubs' spot in the rankings over the holidays, the Warriors continued to take from the hosts by escaping with a 57-56 win.
Greencastle head coach Troy Greenlee said Danville did not bump the Tiger Cubs out of the polls by accident.
"Danville's a very good all-around team and they don't have many weaknesses," Greenlee said. "They do have some guys on the inside that are exceptional, so we wanted to make it as hard as we could for them to get inside looks.
"With a team as good as they are, they're going to get some looks and unfortunately, we gave up too many of them."
The Tiger Cubs got off to an excellent start after threes from Colin York and Colyn Foxx put the hosts ahead 11-4 in the opening minutes.
Danville, which held a significant height advantage over Greencastle, slowly began to put points on the board by playing to its low post strengths.
The visitors rattled off nine straight points to take a two-point lead before Anthony Mitchell leveled the score at 13-13.
Baskets on both ends were followed by another three from York and a pair of free throws by Jacob Fulton to end the quarter with Greencastle leading 18-17.
The lead did not last long as Luke Callahan began to give Greencastle fits inside.
The senior scored 10 points and grabbed eight boards in the frame to help negate the Tiger Cub offense, which, while still playing well, could not keep the Warriors off the glass, a point Greenlee repeatedly pointed out.
"The difference in the game, and I'm sounding like a broken record, was the defensive glass," Greenlee said. "I thought we allowed them to get second shots at times that, if we could have gotten another rebound here or there, could have affected the outcome of the game."
A late York three moved the hosts to within four as Danville led 35-31 at halftime.
The sides continued their frenetic scoring in the third as neither team scored more than five straight points during the frame.
A late two by Ryan Cloncs was the only difference between the two sides as Danville extended its lead to 54-49 at the end of three.
As much as the first 24 minutes had been dominated by offense, the final eight minutes brought the speed of the game to a screeching halt.
Greenlee pointed to the fact that defensive changes and a desire to find the best shot slowed the pace of the game dramatically.
"I think when you have a tight ballgame like this one, every shot becomes more important," Greenlee noted. "We sagged in more on defense and Danville had to work the ball a lot to find a good look."
Mitchell grabbed a pair of baskets early in the quarter to cut the lead to one before a Brody Bollman basket put Greencastle ahead for the first time since the second quarter.
Cloncs scored to retake the lead for Danville and as time began to slip away, the Tiger Cubs had to foul several times just to get the visitors into the bonus.
A pair of free throws from Jake Elliott would prove enough to get Danville over the line as Mitchell had a late three blocked by Cloncs and the inbounds pass could only reach Coble inside the three-point line, meaning the resulting basket could not tie the game for the hosts.
Greenlee, despite the loss, said the team played well and needed one more play to get over the hump.
"I was really pleased with how our kids battled on both ends of the floor," Greenlee said. "I thought Ryan Coble had a breakout night tonight on offense and defensively he was very good as well.
"It was a great overall effort by our team and with a possession here or there, it could have been a different outcome."
Greencastle has a week to get back into the swing of school days before hosting Rockville next Friday and Greenlee said that the Rox would be a similar opponent as the one they just faced.
"We have to build on this game," Greenlee said. "If we take a performance like this into our next several games and play as well as we did tonight against the next few teams, we have a great chance of being successful, but we cannot have let downs.
"I think getting back into a rhythm with school will be key this week. Rockville is a team similar to what we faced tonight, trying to get it into their big guys with quick guards, so we need to get back, keep guys out of the middle of the floor and continue to get better on the rebounding end."
At Greencastle
Danville 17 18 19 4 -- 58
Greencastle 18 13 18 8 -- 57
Statistics
Scoring
Danville -- 23-58 FG, 3-13 3-FG, 9-17 FT -- Cloncs 16, Elliott 14, L. Callahan 11, Potts 6, Fulton 6, A. Cowart 4, Hubbard 1, Davis 0, Stone 0, Delamarter 0
Greencastle -- 22-49 FG, 8-17 3-FG, 5-8 FT -- Coble 21, York 11, Bollman 9, Mitchell 6, Foxx 5, Gerard 5, Hughes 0
Rebounding (Offensive)
Danville 28 (13); Greencastle 19 (6)
Assists
Danville 14; Greencastle 10
Steals
Danville 10; Greencastle 4
Blocks
Danville 4; Greencastle 0
Turnovers
Danville 9; Greencastle 13
Fouls
Danville 12; Greencastle 15
Next Game: Greencastle (5-3, 1-0 WCC) hosts Rockville next Friday.