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York’s 24 leads Tiger Cubs over Crawfordsville
At one of the most crucial junctures of the game on Tuesday night, Greencastle coach Bryce Rector turned to a freshman.
The Crawfordsville Athenians had cut the Tiger Cub lead to 46-44 with 17.8 seconds left, and everybody in McAnally Center knew the ball was going to Colin York.
The Athenians chose not to guard the in-bounds passer and double team York, so the Cubs sent Whitaker to receive the pass and he was immediately fouled, as expected.
Whitaker stepped to the line and hit both free throws with 16.9 seconds left, icing a 51-44 victory by the Tiger Cubs.
“Brody is a very mature freshman,” Rector said. “He plays well for his age. He still has a lot of learning to do, but I couldn’t be happy with his ability to handle some pressure and play like he did.
“I’m really excited to watching him continue to grow as a player.”
Senior guard Cameron Harris hit a 3-pointer for Crawfordsville near the end of the first quarter to give his team a 10-7 lead at the first stop.
Greencastle hit just 3 of 13 shots in the first period, while the Athenians connected on only 4 of 12.
The second quarter was even less of a shooting exhibition, as the teams attempted 13 treys between them and didn’t hit any.
York, who was scoreless in the first period, had six second-quarter points as the Tiger Cubs stayed close at 19-17 going to intermission.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys competed,” Rector said. “You could tell at the beginning we were a little sluggish, and we have some guys who are still getting comfortable in their roles.
“Really, I loved the intensity that we brought,” he added. “It was refreshing to see. We struggled to shoot the ball, but we stayed in the game because we played hard.”
York came out firing in the third period, hitting three Cub baskets — the final one a trey — to put the Cubs up 24-21 with 5:06 left in the period.
Harris, who had half of Crawfordsville’s points, hit three straight 3-pointers in the third period to overcome a 30-25 Greencastle leadmidway through the period and take a 36-34 advantage into the fourth quarter.
“He’s really, really good,” Rector said. “He’s one of the best players we’ll play against all year. He hit some shots that were really tough, but I thought Jack Hutcheson did a really good job on him.”
Hutcheson picked up two fouls in the first period, after scoring four points and hauling in four rebounds.
“We got a little out of synch for a while after that,” Rector said. “Trey Wood came in and did an excellent job in his position.”
Whitaker opened the fourth period with a trey, and hit another two minutes later to put Greencastle up 42-38 with 2:54 to play.
The Athenians got baskets from three different players in the final 2:30, but the Cubs answered each time until the 46-44 margin and Whitaker’s big free throws.
“I love the fact that our guys are not afraid of the monent,” Rector said. “We had some guys step up and hit some big shots. We kept them off the free throw line, and we were able to get there. That was a huge difference in the game.”
York led all scorers with 24 points, while Whitaker added 13 and Hutcheson had eight.
Gavin Bollman’s only basket was a 3-pointer in the first period, but the 6-5 junior finished with 13 rebounds.
The Tiger Cubs made only seven turnovers for the game, while the Athenians had just four in the well-played contest.
Greencastle finished shooting 36 percent from the field (16 of 44), while the Athenians hit 37 percent (19 of 51).
One huge difference was from behind the arc, where Greencastle was 5 of 13 (38 percent) and the Athenians struggled to hit just 5 of 25 (20 percent).
The Tiger Cubs are now idle until Tuesday when they travel to 12th-ranked Danville in a game originally schedule for Saturday. The game was moved due to Danville’s involvement in the football state finals until last Saturday.
CRAWFORDSVILLE (44) — Harris 9-20 0-0 22, Williamson 3-8 0-0 6, Sommer 2-7 1-1 5, Saunders 1-4 0-2 3, Scorza 3-6 0-0 6, Gonzalez 1-3 0-0 2, Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Kellerman 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 19-51 FG, 1-3 FT, 44 TP
GREENCASTLE (51) — C.York 6-19 11-12 24, Bollman 1-6 1-2 4, Hutcheson 4-5 0-0 8, Whitaker 4-11 2-4 13, A.York 0-0 0-0 0, Wood 1-1 0-0 2, Parmley 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 15-44 FG, 14-18 FT, 51 TP
Crawfordsville 10 9 17 8 — 44
Greencastle 7 10 17 17 — 51
3-point shooting — Crawfordsville 5-25 (Harris 4-11, Wiliamson 0-2, Sommer 0-3, Saunders 1-2, Scorza 0-2, Gonzalez 0-2, Kellerman 0-2), Greencastle 5-13 (C.York 1-6, Bollman 1-2, Whitaker 3-7, Parmley 0-2). Turnovers — Greencastle 7 Crawfordsville 4.