Greencastle beats tough Monrovia team on the road

MONROVIA-- The Greencastle Tiger Cubs visited the Monrovia Bulldogs without their senior leader Brody Bollman, who was lost due to injury, but found a way to prevail 62-53.

The Tiger Cubs played well in the first half but the Bulldogs could not miss and the hosts stuck close. After being down nine at the end of first quarter, the Tiger Cubs fought back in the second to make it a three point deficit.

"Early on we were not defending the transition very well. We were giving up easy baskets," Greencastle head coach Troy Greenlee said. "We were able to sure that up a little and we played better defensively."

The Tiger Cubs shot very well in the second quarter, knocking down 5-of-7 shots in the quarter.

After a Monrovia bucket to open the third quarter Greencastle hit three straight layups to take its first lead of the game, 34-33.

The Bulldogs promptly called a timeout and took control going on a, 8-2 run to widen the gap to five off a basket with less than two seconds left.

On Greencastle's last possession junior Ryan Coble found freshman Colin York in the corner for a look at a 3-pointer.

"It was huge. Colin hit a big shot," Greenlee said. "He made one of many big plays for us on the night."

York nailed it with two seconds left and was fouled. He made the free throw and cut the lead to one to end the quarter down 42-41.

That shot was what Greencastle needed as it totally depleted Monrovia's momentum and rode that to the win.

The Tiger Cubs hit two 3-pointers to stretch the lead and when Monrovia started to foul the Tiger Cubs hit every foul shot en route to going 18-of-20 from the line for the game.

Coble had a huge game for Greencastle leading the team in every category with 24 points, eight assists, five rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

"I told Ryan he needed to do a lot for us tonight at both the offensive and defensive end. He distributed well, he hit shots and he made his free throws," Greenlee said. "Great overall performance from him. I thought we had a lot of guys step up."

Filling in for Bollman, the duo of senior Adam Gerard and sophomore J.T. Matthews stepped up in a big way playing great inside defense and combining for seven points and five rebounds.

York also had a very good game scoring 15 points and nailing 4-of-6 from deep.

The Tiger Cubs were outrebounded on the night 29-16 but without their inside guy the Greenlee knew it would be tough.

"I thought overall we were not terrible on the boards but we need to work on that," Greenlee said. "J.T. played a lot for us tonight and we need to get those guys ready to play."

At Monrovia

Greencastle 14 14 14 20 - 62

Monrovia 23 8 12 10 - 53

Scoring

Greencastle (62): Coble 5-15 12-13 24, York 5-7 1-1 15, Mitchell 3-5 2-3 9, Gerard 2-4 1-1 5, Foxx 1-2 2-2 4, Hughes 1-3 0-0 3, Matthews 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 18-38 (8-21) 18-20, 62.

Monrovia (53): Smith 22, Eisenhut 8, Seber 8, Seals 5, Burgess 4, Williams 4.

Rebounding (Total-offensive)

GC (16-4): Coble 5-1, Matthews 5-0, Hughes 2-1, Mitchell 2-2, York 2-0.

Mon (29-12): Smith 8-3, Seals 7-5, Seber 5-2, Williams 3-1, Burgess 2-1, Eisenhut 2-0, Whitaker 1-0.

Assists: GC 10 (Coble 8) M 9 (Eisenhut 4). Blocks GC 3 (Coble 3) M 2 (Seber 2). Steals GC 9 (Coble 4) M 10 (Smith 5).

Turnovers: GC 6, Mon 16. Fouls GC 14, Mon 18.