Greencastle breaks 30-year drought at Owen Valley

SPENCER – There are unusual streaks in sports and the Greencastle Tiger Cub boys’ basketball team broke one of those streaks at Owen Valley on Thursday night.

The Tiger Cubs had not won a basketball game in the gymnasium at Owen Valley since at least 1993. Five US presidents and four head basketball coaches at Greencastle had come and gone before Greencastle defeated the Patriots 61-28 in a Western Indiana Conference game.

The Tiger Cubs shut down the Patriot offense and placed four players in double figures on the night. Greencastle’s balanced offense and stifling defense allowed it to improve their record to 13-9 and 7-3 in the WIC. Owen Valley dropped to 6-14 and 4-5 in league play.

“This is traditionally a very tough place to play. You come down here, you don’t shoot it very well, breaks just don’t go your way. We have had some really good teams come down here and get beat. For us to come in here and get a win at a time we really needed it was great,” Greencastle head coach Bryce Rector said.

Cody Evans got the Tiger Cubs off to a good start in the game with an early three-pointer. Greencastle’s offense took control as they boosted the lead to 12-4 on a Sam Gooch steal and dunk with 3:33 left.

Owen Valley’s Kaden Hamilton answered with a four-point play as he got fouled hitting a three-pointer. The Cubs closed strong as a Taygan McRoberts rebound basket closed the quarter with Greencastle leading 17-10.

Four quick points by Gooch and Judah Amis gave the Cubs their first double-digit lead at 21-10 early in the second period.

Greencastle methodically executed the remainder of the quarter with Connor Sullivan nailing a three-pointer and Nathan Sutherlin scoring a pair of buckets late in the quarter to boost the Cub lead to 32-19 at the intermission.

“When you get contributions from everyone, it makes things so much easier. We have had five, six, seven times this year when we were getting all of our points from one or two guys. It feels like it is so much tougher that way. It was really good to see us get those contributions,” Rector said as the Cubs put four players in double figures and another pair with five points or more.

If there was any doubt in the first half, the Cubs put that to rest in the third quarter. Greencastle’s defense allowed only four points in the period, holding the Patriots scoreless over the last five and half minutes.

That balance showed up as McRoberts had his second five-point quarter of the game. That point total was matched by Evans and Gooch as the Cubs stretched the lead to 52-23 heading into the fourth period. The Patriots hit just 2-of-13 shots in the quarter as the Cubs took total control.

“I thought we really impacted them with our zone defense. We were good in our man defense and our zone defense. We told the team that we were going to have to be good in both to have a chance to win the sectional,” Rector said as his team limited Owen Valley to just over 20 percent shooting.

Gooch started the fourth quarter with an alley-oop dunk and Anthony Adams hit a shot; shortly thereafter the Cubs boosted the lead to over 35 points and started the running clock, officially ended the game with the 61-28 victory as both teams emptied their benches for the last portion of the quarter.

Hamilton led the Patriots with 12 points as the only Owen Valley member in double figures. Gooch led the Cubs with 15 points, Evans had 11 and McRoberts and Nathan Sutherlin contributed 10 each. Sutherlin finished the game with a perfect 5-of-5 from the field.

“The number one key for us tonight was our ability to push the pace. This felt completely different than North Putnam, completely different than Monrovia. Some of the games we struggled offensively. We didn’t just walk the ball up the court. We are going to have to continue to do that to win a sectional,” Rector said.

The Cubs have one more chance in the regular season to work on their game as they will travel to North Montgomery next Friday, Feb. 23 for the finale before tournament time.