Greencastle splits pair of WIC basketball games at West Vigo

WEST TERRE HAUTE – Greencastle and West Vigo split a pair of Western Indiana Conference basketball games on Friday night, with both winning teams making second-half comebacks to overcome deficits.

Greencastle’s girls led 18-13 at halftime, but West Vigo opened the second half on an 11-2 run. Some poor free throw shooting kept the Vikings from putting the game away before they held on to record a 38-35 victory to stay undefeated on the season at 3-0 overall (1-0 in Western Indiana Conference play). The Tiger Cubs broke a two-game winning streak and fell to 4-3 overall (2-2 in WIC action).

In the boys’ game, the teams battled back and forth for more than three quarters before West Vigo hit three straight treys in the final period to take their biggest lead since the second period. Greencastle made big plays down the stretch and was able to pull out a 43-42 victory.

The Cubs are 1-1 overall and 1-0 in WIC play.

Both games were played in a mostly quiet Jim Mann Green Dome without the benefit of the normal accompaniment of fans, cheerleaders or a home-team band – a situation players will likely need to get used to this season.

GIRLS

West Vigo 38, Greencastle 35 -- Greencastle got five first-quarter points from Kennedy Trigg in taking a 10-6 lead at the first stop.

Sydney Doan added five points of her own in the second period, and Greencastle led 18-13 at halftime.

Maci Easton hit a trey for West Vigo to open the second half, and after Trigg scored for the Cubs the Vikings began doing some damage underneath in an 8-0 run. Katelyn Fennell had a pair of baskets and Easton had a putback as the Vikings took a 24-20 lead midway through the third period.

West Vigo took a 27-22 lead into the final period, and some late heroics almost saw the Cubs pull out the win.

Trailing 36-31 with three minutes left, Trigg hit a pair of free throws followed by a layup shsrtly after to cut the deficit to 36-35. Greencastle wouldn’t score again, and Indiana-South Bend signee Kylee Stepp hit a pair of free throws with 21.4 seconds left to end a long string of Viking misses at the line.

The Cubs got the ball back with a few seconds left, but missed a pair of treys in the closing seconds.

“Basketball is definitely a game of runs, and they had more runs than we did,” Greencastle coach Kellie Kirkhoff said. “We played OK in spurts, but they played better longer and that’s what the score represents.”

The Tiger Cubs have been “full-go” in practice recently, with only one player having been affected by COVID-19. Greencastle has won all four of its home games this year and lost all three on the road, something which Kirkhoff wants to remedy.

“We hope to continue practicing and be able to play the rest of our games,” Kirkhoff said. “This year, we’ve had our ups and our downs. We obviously play better at home, which we’re trying to get over. There is something about traveling on the road this year.

“We practice really hard and have some major competitors, and we need to figure out how to compete harder and longer on the road.”

Trigg had 16 points to lead the Tiger Cubs, while Doan added 10.

GREENCASTLE (35) — Doan 3-21 3-4 10, Dinn 2-2 1-2 5, Zellers 1-7 0-0 2, Trigg 4-14 7-8 16, Chavez 0-5 2-2 2, Briones 0-1 0-0 0, Brennan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-50 FG, 13-16 FT, 35 TP.

WEST VIGO (38) — M.Easton 2-8 1-2 5, Fennell 5-11 0-4 10, Likens 2-4 0-0 4, Stepp 3-15 3-5 10, E.Easton 2-6 4-6 8, Boatman 0-2 0-0 0, Lasecki 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-46 FG, 8-18 FT, 38 TP.

3-point shooting — Greencastle 2-12 (Trigg 1-1, Doan 1-7, Zellers 0-4), WV 2-11 (M.Easton 1-2, Stepp 1-6, Fennell 0-1, Likens 0-1, E.Easton 0-1). Total fouls — Greencastle 16, WV 13. Fouled out — Chavez. Turnovers — Greencastle 16, WV 14. Rebounds — Greencastle 45 (Doan 14, Chavez 8, Dinn 6, Trigg 6, Zellers 4, Briones 2, Team 5), WV 40 (Stepp 11, M.Easton 9, Fennell 6, Likens 5, E.Easton 2, Boatman, Team 6). Assists — Greencastle 6 (Trigg 3, Doan, Zellers, Chavez), WV 6 (M.Easton 2, Fennell, Stepp, E.Easton, Boatman). Steals — Greencastle 10 (Trigg 5, Doan 2, Dinn 2, Zellers), WV 11 (M.Easton 3, Fennell 2, Stepp 2, E.Easton 2, Likens, Boatman). Blocks — Greencastle 1 (Doan), WV 5 (Likens 4, E.Easton).

BOYS

Greencastle 43, West Vigo 42 — Greencastle was looking for its first win after losing 72-63 to Crawfordsville on Nov. 24 in its only previous game. West Vigo was in a similar position after losing its opener 68-59 to Owen Valley on Tuesday.

The Tiger Cubs held West Vigo scoreless for a 3:08 stretch in the middle of the first quarter and took an 11-7 lead at the first stop. Brody Whitaker had four points in the period, including an old-fashioned three-point play with 1:38 left for the final points of the quarter.

West Vigo scored the first nine points of the second quarter to take a 16-11 lead, and Whitaker’s free throws with 3:36 left in the half were Greencastle’s first points of the period. Ethan Maier had a pair of free throws followed by a putback basket late in the half to help the Cubs stay close, and Whitaker drove the length of the floor for a layup at the buzzer to put the score at 24-24 at the halfway point.

Whitaker had a trey and a basket, while Cade Plew had a pair of baskets, as the Cubs inched their way up to a 36-33 lead at the final stop.

Benny Parmley hit a basket to open the final period for Greencastle, but the Vikings hit three straight treys in a 2:09 span from 5:18 to 3:09 to assume a 42-38 lead. They would not score again, though.

As he has often done in his Tiger Cub career, Nick Sutherlin stepped up and made two huge plays in the final two minutes to bring his team back to victory.

Sutherlin nailed a key trey with 1:49 left to cut a 42-38 deficit to one point, and converted a steal near midcourt in a halfcourt trapping defense into a game-winning layup with 15 seconds left. The Vikings missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer which gave the Cubs the win.

“I thought we competed really well tonight, a lot better than we did against Crawfordsville,” Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “I didn’t think we were very good offensively, but West Vigo was really good defensively and had some stretches where they defended us really well. I think we hit only three out of 17 or 18 from 3-point range, and when you’re not hitting from outside it looks like you’re forcing things inside.”

Rector applauded Sutherlin for coming up with the loose ball and finishing at such a crucial moment.

“That was a huge play by Nick at a really important time of the game,” he said. “That’s just an athlete being an athlete. We were pretty good defensively, except we got back-cut a couple of times when they spread us out like they did. We were a little gassed at times.”

Rector thought his players did a good job of overcoming the vastly different environment on game night than they are used to having.

“I thought we were solid with how hard we played, and didn’t let them not fuel them in terms of energy,” he said. “It’s a weird feeling for sure. I think if we compete like we did tonight, we’ll be in a good spot.”

Whitaker led the Tiger Cubs with 13 points, although he was held scoreless in the final period before fouling out in the final seconds. Sutherlin added 10 points.

GREENCASTLE (43) — Whitaker 4-12 4-5 13, Sutherlin 4-11 1-3 10, Plew 4-5 0-1 8, Alexander 1-5 0-0 3, Parmley 1-4 1-2 3, Maier 2-3 2-2 6, Hutcheson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-40 FG, 8-13 FT, 43 TP.

WEST VIGO (42) — Lautenschlager 4-7 1-2 9, Tanoos 3-7 3-4 9, Newhouse 1-4 0-0 2, Holman 3-7 2-2 11, Bunch 3-8 1-1 8, Beaver 0-0 0-0 0, Kesler 1-5 0-0 3, Easton 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-40 FG, 7-9 FT, 42 TP.

3-point shooting — Greencastle 3-16 (Sutherlin 1-4, Alexander 1-5, Whitaker 1-6, Parmley 0-1), WV 5-17 (Holman 3-6, Bunch 1-3, Kesler 1-4, Lautenschlager 0-1, Newhouse 0-1, Tanoos 0-2). Total fouls — Greencastle 12, WV 13. Fouled out — Whitaker. Turnovers — Greencastle 6, WV 7. Rebounds — Greencastle 32 (Plew 11, Whitaker 6, Maier 5, Sutherlin 4, Parmley 2, Team 4), WV 24 (Newhouse 11, Tanoos 4, Lautenschlager 2, Easton 2, Holman, Team 4). Assists — Greencastle 10 (Parmley 4, Sutherlin 3, Plew 2, Whitaker), WV 8 (Tanoos 4, Lautenschlager, Newhouse, Kesler, Easton). Steals — Greencastle 6 (Whitaker 2, Sutherlin 2, Parmley, Maier), WV 2 (Newhouse, Holman). Blocks — Greencastle 1 (Hutcheson), WV 0.