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Cubs nipped in season finale
Chargers hit nine treys to key victory
North Montgomery scored exactly half of its points on 3-point field goals on Friday night, as the Chargers spoiled Greencastle’s senior night festivities with a 54-53 victory in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The game was played evenly from start to finish, with the largest lead being just eight points.
The Tiger Cubs opened the game with a basket from J.T. Matthews and a 3-pointer from Colin York.
Unhappy with his team’s play in the first four minutes, North Montgomery coach Eric Danforth replaced his entire lineup at an unusually early stage of the game.
The Charger backups responded, as Quinton Hall hit a pair of treys and Gregory Pietsch added another to bring North Montgomery to a 9-9 tie with 1:28 left in the first period.
Greencastle got a free throw from Gavin Bollman and a last-second running bank shot from Nick Costin to claim a 12-9 lead at the first stop.
The Chargers scored the first seven points of the second quarter on a trey from Justin Clary and a basket followed by two free throws from Caleb Randolph to take a 16-12 lead.
North Montgomery got a trey from Mitch Merica and back-to-back long shots from Clary to take a 29-21 lead with 2:09 left in the half.
Greencastle closed out the half strongly, as York sandwiched a trey and a basket around a Jack Hutcheson basket to cut the gap to 29-28.
“We didn’t do a great job of contesting 3-pointers, and they hit too many of them,’ Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “Clary got away from us a couple of times in the first half.
“Sometimes they fall in, and sometimes they don’t,” he added. “Give them credit — they hit them when they were open.”
The Chargers hit 7 of 11 treys in the first half, and Clary hit one to open the period for his team and one to close the period.
Back-to-back baskets by Matthews and Bollman tied the game at 36-36 with 3:51 left in the period. The Chargers got five quick points on a Randolph basket and the second Clary trey, but Greencastle tied the game at 41-41 on a York basket and an Alex Costin trey to close out the period.
North Montgomery was able to put together another fatal streak to open the fourth quarter, getting a basket from Jack Thompson followed by an old-fashioned 3-point play and another hoop from Clary to boost the lead back to 48-41.
York and the Tiger Cubs were not done yet, however. A York basket and another Alex Costin trey cut the deficit to 48-46 with 5:23 left.
Greencastle sliced a point off that lead as York answered a Kade Kobel basket with a trey with 4:44 left to make it a 50-49 game.
Then came a stretch of three minutes and 17 seconds in which both teams got good shots but nobody scored. Kobel broke the ice for the Chargers with a pair of free throws at the 1:27 mark.
Matthews answered those points with a basket following a key offensive rebound by Bollman.
The Tiger Cubs fouled Clary with 39.5 seconds left, and the smooth junior hit both free throws to restore the lead to three at 54-51.
Greencastle worked the clock down to 25.7 seconds before calling timeout. Nick Costin missed a 3-pointer, but Bollman got the rebound and scored on a putback with 4.3 seconds left.
The Tiger Cubs fouled Clary, who missed the one-and-one opportunity. York fell short on a halfcourt shot at the final buzzer.
“Gavin was great on the boards, as usual,” Rector said. “Our guys played hard, but we just missed some big shots and had some key turnovers at the wrong time.”
York led Greencastle with 22 points, while Matthews added 10.
Both Greencastle and North Montgomery finished the regular season at 8-14.
The Tiger Cubs host the sectional, meeting Crawfordsville in the opener on Tuesday night.
“They’re a good team and it’s going to take a great effort to beat them,” Rector said.
NORTH MONTGOMERY (54) — Randolph 4-9 4-5 12, Clary 7-9 3-4 22, Merica 1-4 0-0 3, Kobel 2-2 2-2 6, Dugard 0-2 0-0 0, Hall 2-3 0-0 6, Pletsch 1-2 0-0 3, Cain 0-0 0-0 0, Verduin 0-2 0-0 0, Jackman 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 18-34 FG, 9-11 FT, 54 TP
GREENCASTLE (53) — York 9-17 0-1 22, N.Costin 2-8 0-0 4, Lucas 0-0 0-0 0, Clar 0-1 0-0 0, Matthews 5-9 0-1 10, Bollman 3-5 1-2 7, Hutcheson 2-4 0-0 4, A.Costin 2-5 0-0 6. Totals 23-50 FG, 1-4 FT, 53 TP
North Montgomery 9 20 12 13 — 54
Greencastle 12 16 13 12 — 53
3-point shooting — NM 9-16 (Clary 5-7, Merica 1-2, Dugard 0-1, Hall 2-3, Pletsch 1-1, Verduin 1-1), Greencastle 6-17 (York 4-7, N.Costin 0-4, A.Costin 2-5, Matthews 0-1).