SOUTHMONT BOYS' BASKETBALL SECTIONAL: Tiger Cubs pounced on by Wolves

Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Greencastle's Cody Evans gets through the Parke Heritage defense for a layup during Tuesday night's IHSAA Boys' Basketball Class 2A Sectional No. 44 opener. After a promising start, the Wolves forced the issue in the second quarter, turning a six-point deficit into a nine-point halftime lead on the way to a 60-41 win over the Tiger Cubs.
Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

NEW MARKET – Things were looking up for Greencastle after eight minutes in the opening game of IHSAA Boys’ Basketball Class 2A Sectional No. 44 play against Parke Heritage.

By halftime, things weren’t looking so rosy any longer as the Tiger Cubs were outscored 19-4 in the second quarter, falling in the opening round of sectional play to the Wolves 60-41.

“We were really concerned with two things: (Parke Heritage’s) ability to pressure and their ability to shoot the ball,” Greencastle head coach Bryce Rector said. “It turned out that both of those things went against us.

“If one of those things went against us, we thought we could handle it and be in a good spot. If they turned us over a lot of times but only hit three or four threes, we thought we’d be in a good spot to win the game; likewise, if they hit six or eight threes but we really took care of the ball, we’d be in a good spot.

“When you couple those two things together, however, it put us in a hole too big to get out of in the end,” Rector added.

Anthony Adams notched a three shortly after the opening tip with a second three from Cody Evans giving Greencastle (7-17) a 6-2 lead.

A Sam Gooch jumper and Adams layup extended the lead to 10-4 before a Renn Harper three-point play halved the deficit to 10-7.

Gooch would close the quarter with a three-point play of his own to give the Tiger Cubs a 15-9 lead.

Evans answered a basket from Adam Carrington to keep the lead at six but at that point, Parke Heritage (16-9) opted to pressure across the court.

The change had immediate dividends back-to-back steals led to back-to-back threes from Max Dowd and Treigh Schelsky that tied the game at 17-17.

Additional threes from Harper and Brayden Luce flipped the lead around to 23-17 with Dowd and Ethan Tidwell scoring from the field and a late Schelsky free throw giving the Wolves a 28-19 advantage at halftime.

Greencastle dug in as Adams opened the second half with a basket, followed by four points from Cole Hutcheson and six from Gooch, including a three that cut the gap to 24-31 with 2:46 left in the third quarter.

Parke Heritage answered back, scoring nine of the last 11 points in the period with Schelsky scoring twice and Luce adding a three to give the Wolves a 43-33 lead after three quarters of play.

“Our guys competed,” Rector said about not allowing the halftime lead to snowball out of control. “We cut it to three but (Parke Heritage) went on a run and that’s something they’re really good at.

“They can hit two or three shots in-a-row and if you don’t get good looks on the other end, it can be a 9-0 run fast.”

The Tiger Cubs could not force a quick enough tempo in the final quarter to cut into the lead as Luce scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the final quarter to help ensure Parke Heritage advanced into Friday’s first semifinal against South Putnam.

Greencastle won five of its last six games heading into sectional play, a run that Rector said would help the young squad springboard into the next campaign.

“Looking ahead, we’ll miss Cole’s ability to score the basketball for us,” Rector said. “We’ll miss the leadership of Boyd (Ensley) and Carson (Taylor), something that is going to be very difficult to replace.

“With that said, we return a lot of kids with varsity experience and that should bode well for next year. We had to learn how to compete then learn how to win, something that took us the whole year to learn unfortunately.

“We wish we would have found a way to win a few of those game earlier this year and get to a double-digit win total but we did figure things out as the year progressed on and it leaves us with a decent taste in our mouths with what we have returning.”

Greencastle15414841
Parke Heritage919151760

Scoring

Greencastle (12-18 2FG; 3-8 3FG; 8-13 FT) — Gooch 16, Evans 8, Hutcheson 8, Adams 7, Sutherlin 2

Parke Heritage (13-21 2FG; 8-25 3FG; 10-16 FT) — Luce 18, Schelsky 15, Dowd 10, Harper 9, Tidwell 2, Carrington 2

Statistics

GreencastleParke Heritage
Rebounds169
Off. Rebounds27
Assists910
Steals513
Turnovers218
Fouls1513
Blocks31
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