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Tiger Cubs escape with tough win at Rockville
ROCKVILLE — In order to compete for sectional titles, high school basketball teams have to develop the ability to grind out victories in close games.
For Greencastle coach Bryce Rector, last weekend showed the progress his team is making.
After pulling out a one-point win over Northview on Friday night, the Tiger Cubs came back from a six-point deficit after three quarter to edge Rockville 37-35.
Rector has said from the day he was hired that his program would be built on defense, and this game showed how well that transformation is going.
The Cubs held Rockville to just three points in the fourth quarter, and Colin York stifled Rox leading scorer Landon Newnum and held the 22-point scorer to just one second-half basket.
“We did a great job defensively and fought through a lot of adversity in this game,” Rector said. “Defense is what won us the ballgame tonight. This was a hard double weekend, and to be able to rebound with a win is great.”
The Rox played at a slow tempo to start the game, and the teams were tied at 6-6 after one quarter. The Rox pulled away to an 18-16 halftime lead.
Rockville also won the third period, and took a 32-26 lead at the final stop.
The Greencastle defense took hold at that point, allowing the Rox just a 3-pointer by Hunter Michalic with 3:10 left.
Meanwhile, while leading scorers York and Gavin Bollman would go scoreless in the final period a pair of freshmen would provide all the points Greencastle would need.
Brody Whitaker hit a basket a little less than two minutes into the period, and classmate Benton Parmley hit the first of three straight treys with 5:17 left to cut the gap to one at 32-31. Parmley nailed another trey a minute later to give Greencastle a two-point advantage for its first lead since 14-12.
Michalic answered a minute later with another trey to put his team up by one, and after a Greencastle miss the Rox then stopped attacking the basket and started trying to play keep-away.
The Cubs had not been whistled for enough fouls to require the Rox to shoot free throws, so several consecutive fouls took place.
With :56.6 left, Parmley got hit hands on a pass and tipped the ball away.
Fourteen seconds later, Parmley calmly splashed another trey to end the game’s scoring and help the Cubs improve to 6-4.
“How about Benton?” said Rector, whose team lost its first seven games last year and did not win its first game until beating Rockville at the same point in the schedule. “That’s a freshman right there, and he did not hesitate at all. He hit some huge shots for us.
“We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we wanted to, but we came out of the weekend with two wins and we’ll take that every day.”
The Cubs will have another double weekend coming up, starting at North Putnam on Friday in the final WIC game of divisional play and hosting red-hot Edgewood on Saturday.
“It’s going to be another tough one,” Rector said. “North Putnam has Elliot [Gross] back, and Collin [McCartt] does a great job with his team. Edgewood is playing as well as anyone.”
GREENCASTLE (37) — C.York 3-13 5-6 11, Bollman 5-9 0-0 10, Whitaker 2-3 0-1 5, Hutcheson 1-1 0-0 2, A.York 0-0 0-0 0, Parmley 3-4 0-0 9, Wood 0-0 0-0 0, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-30 FG, 5-7 FT, 37 TP
ROCKVILLE (35) — Newnum 4-15 0-0 9, Michalic 2-5 3-4 9, Nichols 2-4 0-0 4, White 2-3 0-0 4, Butler 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-34 FG, 3-4 FT, 35 TP
Greencastle 6 10 10 11 — 37
Rockville 6 12 14 3 — 35
3-point shooting — Greencastle 4-12 (C.York 0-5, Bollman 0-2, Whitaker 1-1, Parmley 3-4), Rockville 6-18 (Newnum 1-7, Michalic 2-3, Nichols 0-2, Butler 3-6). Turnovers — Greencastle 9, Rockville 11.