Trojans top Cougars in second half

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NEW CASTLE — Both the boys and girls games in Greenfield-Central’s doubleheader Friday night against New Castle had the same trajectory: The Trojans ran away with the victories in the second half.

Boys lose tough battle in fourth quarter

On the boys side, the Cougars were neck-and-neck with the Trojans all the way up until seven minutes left in the game, when New Castle sprinted ahead for the win 63-53. While the Trojans had the Luke Bumbalough threat from the start, he didn’t start getting in his groove until the third quarter.

In the meantime, the Cougars couldn’t quite exploit their advantage. They fought an even offense but missed just enough 3-pointers and free throws to deter them once Bumbalough started attacking.

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Gavin Rose led the first half with 10 points, effectively attacking on the inside while the Mundell brothers, Caleb and Brady, each made a shot and free throw of their own. Bumbalough had scored eight in the first half, which was a stark difference to his 21 points in the second half.

“Whenever you have a kid at that level that you force to beat you with tough shots and he does, you have to tip your hat to the kid who’s that good and move on,” Greenfield-Central head coach Lukas Haworth said. “Even the ones he got, he had to earn them all.”

But what the Cougars never did was give up. Each possession was a fight.

“We’re right there giving ourselves a chance,” Haworth said. “There’s a lot of things you can’t control in this game but you can always control your attitude, you can always control your effort. These guys don’t let anything stop them from having a great attitude and effort.”

In fact, by the first shot of the fourth quarter, the Cougars had taken the lead. The 22-20 deficit at half, turned into a 40-38 game by the end of the third quarter. One of Cougar Sam Hunt’s three 3-pointers dropped in to give Greenfield-Central the lead.

“It’s a game of runs and they made the last one,” Haworth said. “We fought like crazy to keep ourselves close and maybe have a chance but just fell a little bit short.”

After Hunt’s shot, the Trojans went on a 14-point streak helmed by Bumbalough’s outside shooting. That was enough to seal the Cougars’ fate despite their constant battle to the end.

The Cougar offense ended with a typical evenly-spread attack. Rose lead with 12 points and eight rebounds, Hunt followed with 11 points and Brady Mundell scored 10.

Greenfield-Central plays next at Lapel today.

Cougars girls can’t withstand 3-point onslaught

On the girls side, a similar trajectory had a dimmer outcome due to a New Castle offensive onslaught of 3-pointers. The Trojans made 14 3-pointers compared to the Cougars’ one.

Offensively, Greenfield-Central created space and drove the ball but the shots weren’t going in.

“We missed a lot of layups and a lot of inside shots,” Greenfield-Central head coach Bradley Key said. “If you want to compete with a team that has one of the best players in the state, you’re going to have to hit the easy buckets.”

They came back from a 6-0 deficit to start the game but a 7-point lead for New Castle at halftime turned into a 13-point lead by the end of the third.

Cougar Lydia McIntire single-handedly kept the team in the game in the third quarter with her inside presence and free throw shooting.

“I thought Lydia did a really good job in the second half of being more solid,” Key said. “We ran a lot of our set plays through her to get her at the basket and she did a good job of converting.”

McIntire led the team with 19 points and seven rebounds. Hannah Ferrell had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

While the Trojans out-shot the Cougars, the Cougars out-rebounded the Trojans, 34 to 28. But by the fourth quarter, New Castle was too far gone for Greenfield-Central to have a fighting chance.

“We’ve put together some really good quarters the last several games,” Key said. “Even in that first quarter, we got down 6-0 and fought back. We just have to figure out how to put together four solid quarters.”

The Cougars head to Mt. Vernon next Friday in another Hoosier Heritage conference match up.

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Boys 

New Castle 63, Greenfield-Central 53

GC;7;13;18;15;–;53

NC;13;9;18;23;–;63

Greenfield-Central (2-11, 0-4 HHC): Rose 4 4-4 12, Hunt 3 2-2 11, B. Mundell 4 2-6 10, Cochran 4 0-0 9, C. Mundell 3 1-2 7, McIntire 1 0-0 2, O’Connor 1 0-2 2. TOTALS: 20 5-12 53.

New Castle (6-5, 2-2 HHC): Bumbalough 9 5-8 29, 6 1-2 17, Burris 2 3-4 8, Grieser 3 1-1 7, Matney 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 21 10-15 63.

3-pointers: GC 4 (Hunt 3, Cochran 1), NC 11 (Bumbalough 6, Hardwick 4, Burris 1). Rebounds: GC 24 (Rose 8, Cochran 4, Hunt 3, McIntire 3, B. Mundell 2, C. Mundell 2, O’Connor 2), NC 20 (Grieser 6, Matney 4, Bumbalough 4, Burris 2, Blessinger 1, McDaniel 1, Hardwick 1).

Girls 

New Castle 67, Greenfield-Central 43

GC;8;10;11;14;–;43

NC;9;16;17;25;–;67

Greenfield-Central (8-11, 1-4 HHC): McIntire 6 7-7 19, Farrell 4 3-4 12, Hill 1 3-4 6, Arthur 0 2-2 2, Herrell 1 0-0 2, Peterson 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 13 15-17 43.

New Castle (10-8, 3-2 HHC): Tabor 11 1-4 29, Morgan 5 0-0 15, York 4 0-1 11, Semler 2 0-0 4, Smith 2 0-0 4, McGowan 1 0-0 2, Meek 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 26 1-5 67.

3-pointers: GC 1 (Hill), NC 14 (Tabor 6, Morgan 5, York 3). Rebounds: GC 34 (Farrell 13, McIntire 7, Hill 6, Peterson 4, Herrell 2, Barrett 1, Herrell 1. NC 28 (Tabor 8, Smith 5, McGowan 4, Semler 4, York 3, Alspaugh 2, Meek 2).

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