Greencastle falls behind early, rally comes up short at Indian Creek

Greencastle's Cody Evans launches a three during Saturday night's WIC Boys' Basketball game at Indian Creek. After starting in a 19-8 hole, Evans helped the Tiger Cubs to rally back to within four late with 21 points but the visitors fell to the Braves 60-54.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

TRAFALGAR – It wasn’t quite as bad a start as the previous night at West Vigo but Greencastle still found itself in a sizable hole to start Saturday’s WIC Boys’ Basketball game at Indian Creek.

Trailing 19-8 after eight minutes, the Tiger Cubs were able to hang around long enough to reduce the gap to four in the final minute but ran out of time to make a full comeback, falling 60-54 to the Braves.

"We have to find a way to start better," Greencastle head coach Bryce Rector said. "Ultimately, that's what's hurt us in the three losses.

"We've fallen behind by at least 10 points in each of those games. What I liked tonight was it felt like the first half at West Vigo but over there, we just kind of quit, where as tonight, there was no quit in them and that's an improvement."

After falling into a 22-0 hole against the Vikings, Greencastle (1-3, 1-2 WIC) found itself down 12-1 after a hot shooting start from the hosts.

Landon Sichting dropped in 10 quick points for Indian Creek (2-2, 2-0 WIC) hitting a variety of quick shots, and scored 12 total points in the period.

Cody Evans got the first Greencastle baskets with a three and three-point play while Sam Gooch added a layup to make it 15-8 while the hosts grabbed the last two buckets for a 19-8 start.

"My biggest worry coming into the season was how we were going to rebound on defense," Rector said after giving up several offensive boards early. "A couple were bad luck where a free throw bounces back to the three-point line but certainly rebounding affected the outcome of the game.

"It's certainly a fixable thing and it will be fixed this week in practice."

The Brave lead got as large as 14 at 29-15 before a brief flurry, including a Cole Hutcheson three, Evans basket off a block and Gooch jumper, reduced the gap to 31-25.

Sichting hit a three and scored inside to help push the lead back out to 37-25 at halftime.

Second-chance points hurt the Tiger Cubs badly in the first half yet the visitors continued to keep the game from spiraling out of hand, reducing the halftime deficit to seven at 42-35 after two Evans free throws, a floater from Gooch and a Hutcheson basket.

Indian Creek continued to answer back each time, taking a 49-39 lead into the final quarter.

Greencastle’s best moments came in the middle of the final period, scoring six-straight points as Evans and Hutcheson worked the ball inside to reduce the gap to 56-52.

Hutcheson added another drive to make it 58-54 inside the final minutes but couldn’t get any closer despite the Braves missing several free throws late.

"The first thing was the guys competed defensively," Rector said about making a game of it late. "We got stops we couldn't get at West Vigo and offensively, we executed well down the stretch for being a young team.

"We called four or five sets that got us a really good look. That's something you expect from a group of juniors and seniors that have been together for a while, not a group of freshmen and a sophomore on the floor."

Evans finished with 21 points to lead the Tiger Cubs while Hutcheson added 17 and Gooch scored 14 points. Adam Crouch led all scorers with 26 points while Sichting added 19 points for the hosts.

Scoring

Greencastle (17 2FG; 5 3FG; 5-9 FT) — Evans 21, Hutcheson 17, Gooch 14, Adams 2

Indian Creek (17 2FG; 6 3 FG; 8-15 FT) — Crouch 26, Sichting 19, Emberton 8, Modlin 4, Connell 3