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Physical Warriors defeat Greencastle
Danville didn’t take long to establish its superiority over Greencastle in boys’ high school basketball action on Tuesday night, using an aggressive style of play to limit Tiger Cub shots and record a 76-36 victory.
The No. 14-ranked Warriors took leads of 6-0, 14-2 and 20-4 on their way to a 28-9 advantage at the first stop in their season opener.
“Our transition defense was just atrocious in the first quarter,” Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “The second quarter wasn’t too bad, and they only outscored us 13-11.
“Then they just physically beat us up in the second half,” said Rector. “They ran that game from start to finish.”
The Warriors hit 13 of 15 field goals in the opening quarter, many of those coming on layups created by forcing turnovers.
Greencastle’s Colin York was chased around screens from sideline to sideline, scoring one basket in the first period but adding eight of his team-high 13 points in the second period.
Junior Austin Cowart, a muscular 6-2, 180-pounder, not only limited York’s production with his defensive effort but scored 17 of his team-high 19 points in the first half.
The physically-gifted Warriors kept running athletes out onto the court in waves, and the Tiger Cubs could not hang with them.
“They had more offensive rebounds than we had rebounds,” Rector noted. “That’s who they are; they averaged 32 rebounds a game last year. That’s why they are hard to beat.”
Danville held a 41-20 lead at halftime, but outscored Greencastle 18-7 in the third period to take a 59-27 advantage at the final stop.
Rector normally likes to play man-to-man defense, but started the second half in a 2-3 zone.
“It was effective at times,” he said. “We had to try something, because they were scoring at will.”
Danville’s Zach Callahan, one of only two seniors on the Warrior squad, scored nine of his 18 points in the third period — including the last seven on two baskets and a trey in the final two minutes of the period.
York hit a basket for the Tiger Cubs with 6:11 left in the quarter and a trey about two minutes later, and those were the only two hoops of the period until Rylan Lucas added a basket with 3:15 remaining.
Rector was an assistant coach at nearby Avon last year, and is well acquainted with the kind of program that coach Brian Barber has put together.
“That’s one of the top programs in the state of Indiana,” he said. “Coach Barber puts out quality teams year in and year out.
“They beat the 4A state runnerup [McCutcheon] last year.”
Alec Burton added 13 points and Connor Jones had 11 for the Warriors.
Nick Costin had seven points and Jack Hutcheson added six for the Tiger Cubs.
Rector did find some improvements since his team’s season opener at Crawfordsville last week.
“There were some things that were better, more so offensively,” he said. “Colin was more aggressive offensively, and our screening was better at times.”
The Tiger Cubs will open Western Indiana Conference play on Friday by hosting West Vigo in a girl-boy doubleheader, beginning at 6 p.m.
“We have to get better defensively,” Rector said.
DANVILLE (76) — Cowart 9-14 1-1 19, Jones 5-7 0-0 12, Comer 2-6 1-1 5, Burton 6-8 1-2 13, Callahan 7-9 3-3 18, Hiland 1-4 0-0 2, Ware 0-1 0-0 0, Hartman 1-4 0-0 2, Guipe 0-0 0-0 0, Morrell 1-1 0-0 3, Gowan 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 33-56 FG, 6-7 FT, 76 TP
GREENCASTLE (36) — York 6-15 0-0 13, Matthews 0-1 3-4 3, Hutcheson 3-5 0-0 6, Clar 0-0 0-0 0, N.Costin 3-6 0-0 7, A.Costin 1-2 0-0 2, Bollman 1-2 0-2 2, Lucas 1-3 1-2 2. Totals 15-34 FG, 4-8 FT, 36 TP
Danville 28 13 18 17 — 76
Greencastle 9 11 7 9 — 36
3-point goals — Jones 2, Callahan, Morrell, York, N.Costin. Turnovers — Greencastle 20, Danville 6.
JV game — Danville 61 (Wireman 11), Greencastle 30 (Hasty 9).
Next game — Greencastle (0-2) hosts West Vigo on Friday. Danville is now 1-0.