OT yields GHS boys' loss

Sunday, January 24, 2016

THORNTOWN -- The Greencastle Tiger Cubs boys' basketball team traveled to Western Boone to take on the Stars on Saturday night. The Stars stole the game at the end in overtime, 69-67.

"Once we got the lead I did not think that we made decisions that were good ones," Greencastle head coach Troy Greenlee said. "I thought we tried to force things and make plays that were not there. Plus, we did not hit free throws. It is hard to win games when you done hit free throws and do not take care of the ball."

Greencastle (7-6) came out fast as Western Boone (7-8) started out slow. At the end of the first quarter Greencastle had 16 points, sharpshooting senior Ryan Coble had 11 of those, and Western Boone had 10 points.

Western Boone pressed Greencastle in the first half but it did not work out to well for them, only forcing five turnovers and converting those into seven points. Western Boone had eight turnovers in the first half leading to 12 points for Greencastle.

Western Boone came out of the locker room on fire, scoring 14 points in the first four minutes of the second half. Western Boone did not stop their run until they led 47-39.

The Stars rode on the performance of senior Kaleb McCloskey, who had 11 points in the quarter, and junior Marshall Hodgen, who had eight points.

Sophomore Colin York hit two clutch 3-pointers and Coble and senior Devin Clar both made baskets to go on a 10-0 run and take a 49-47 lead into the fourth quarter.

"We went into a 1-3-1 zone and we were active in that," Greenlee said. "They turned the ball over a little bit and we were able to get some baskets."

The run did not stop there as the Tiger Cubs kept forcing turnovers and getting baskets off of those turnovers as they opened up the game when they took a 61-51 lead midway through the quarter.

The Stars defense broke down as it focused on Coble and York, which let other players drive to the basket and score while on the offensive end the Stars could not hit the shots that they got.

After a timeout the Stars started to hit from everywhere. They tied the game at 63-all with just over a minute left in the game on a corner 3-pointer by McCloskey.

The Tiger Cubs then tried to break the tie but missed and the Stars took a timeout with six seconds left to run a play to win the game. The play failed as McCloskey missed the layup and the game headed to overtime.

On Greencastle's opening possession Coble made a runner to take the lead. With under a minute Coble made another shot to give them the lead but not for long.

McCloskey hit a 3-pointer on which Coble fouled him, giving him a free throw and fouling Coble out of the game. McCloskey missed the free throw and the ball was deflected out-of-bounds with 1.7 seconds left in the game giving, the Tiger Cubs a chance at the buzzer to win but York's heave fell short and gave the Tiger Cubs the loss.

Coble continued his great senior year with another double-double with 31 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and five steals.

There are little things that are relatively easy fixes but will take playing in games to work out as the Tiger Cubs look forward toward the end of the season.

"We need to work on free throws," Greenlee said. "Those and working on taking care of the ball when we have a lead like that."

At W. Boone

Greencastle 16 10 23 14 4 - 67

W. Boone 10 14 23 16 6 - 69

SCORING

Greencastle (67): Coble 12-26 5-8 31, York 6-13 2-2 18, N. Costin 3-4 0-0 8, Clar 2-2 2-4 6, A. Costin 1-3 0-2 2, Lewis 1-1 0-2, Matthews 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 25-50 (8-17) 9-18, 67 .

Western Boone (69): McCloskey 11-20 8-10 36, Hodgen 4-11 5-6 15, McMann 3-6 0-1 6, Young 2-2 0-0 4, T. Hendrix 1-2 0-0 3, Miller 1-3 0-0 3, J. Hendrix 1-1 0-0 2. Total: 23-45 (10-22) 13-17, 69.

REBOUNDING (Total-offensive)

Greencastle (24-6): Coble 11-2, Clar 6-1, N. Costin 2-1, Matthews 2-1, A. Costin 1-1, York 1-0, Team 1-0.

Western Boone (30-6): McCloskey 10-2, Young 5-0, Hodgen 4-1, Miller 3-1, Hendrix 2-1, McMann 1-1, Team 5-0.

Assists: GHS 9 (Coble 7), WBHS 12 (Young 5). Steals: GHS 11 (Coble 5), WBHS 2 (Hodgen 1, Young 1). Blocks: GHS 0, WBHS 0.

Turnovers: GHS 9, WBHS 19. Fouls: GHS 15, WBHS 18

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