GREENFIELD — It’s been two seasons of transition.
Last year Greenfield-Central’s boys’ basketball program was transitioning to new head coach Luke Meredith.
With the graduation of five key seniors, the second season under Meredith is a year of changeover, too. Only two players — junior guard Gavin Robertson and sophomore guard Dylan Moles — saw considerable time last season.
After a rough first quarter in Tuesday’s season opener against Guerin Catholic, one thing for certain has been proved to be constant under the tutelage of the second-year head coach.
You’re going to have to earn your wins against the Cougars.
Guerin Catholic was able to do that, beating the Cougars 64-58. It looked like it might come easy for the Eagles, but, it was far from stress-free.
The Eagles jumped out to a 13-point first-quarter advantage, then had to hold off the hard-charging home team to pick up the win.
Greenfield-Central was able to get close in the second half, cutting the deficit to five in the third quarter and to four late in the fourth quarter, but they were never able to get it down to a one-possession game.
“You find out a lot about your team once you play someone,” Meredith said. “We couldn’t have started any worse, turnovers, fumbling the ball around, not knowing who is supposed to take the ball out.
“I called a timeout, talked about trust your training and playing hard. If we’re going to ‘Bring the Juice’ it can’t just be a slogan. I thought for the last three quarters of the game, we brought it. That is G-C basketball. That has got to be who we are.”
The Cougars had as many turnovers as points —six — in the first quarter. Guerin Catholic scored the first 11 points and led 15-2 before Greenfield-Central was able to connect on its first field goal. The Eagles led by as much as 15 during the first eight minutes.
Joey Roland, one of the newcomers, came off the bench to give the Cougars a spark. His aggressive play helped get the Eagles in foul trouble and he and his teammates began shaving the lead at the free-throw line.
Roland finished with 12 points, hitting 12 of 13 from the stripe.
Greenfield-Central had a stretch where it hit 21 straight free throws. It finished the game 27 of 31 (87.1 percent).
Two Roland free throws cut the margin down to seven by halftime. Twice in the third quarter, G-C was able to get it to five. The first time came when Robertson grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast to make it 31-26 with 5 minutes, 10 seconds left in the period.
A trey from another newcomer, Adam Lester, with 4:40 left in the third knocked the visitor’s lead down to 34-29.
In the fourth quarter, most of deficit-dissecting came at the line.
The never-give-up, play-hard style proved to frustrate Guerin Catholic. When Moles dove for and possessed a loose ball with 1:27 remaining in the game, he was fouled by Joseph Bobilya, who also drew a technical foul on the play.
Moles hit four straight from the line to cut the lead to 58-52. Greenfield-Central had possession after the made free throws. Roland followed by drawing the fifth foul on Guerin Catholic’s 6-5 senior post player Matthew Gillis. He hit both free throws to cut it to 58-54 with 1:06 left.
The Cougars had a shot to make it a one possession game. Back at the line, Moles hit just the first of two free throws for a 61-57 score with 22.9 seconds left.
It ended a stretch of 21 straight made shots from the line. Eighteen of Greenfield-Central’s 24 fourth-quarter points came at the free-throw line. The Cougars hit 18 of 20 (90 percent) for the quarter.
“I didn’t get hired, and these guys didn’t show up tonight, to lose,” Meredith said. “You would never say anything about moral victories, but I liked what I saw the last three quarters. If we can do that for 22 games or for how many games we get this year, we’re going to be just fine.”
Robertson led the Cougars with 17 points including four three-pointers. Moles had 16 points, hitting 9 of 10 from the line in the final quarter. Along with Roland’s 12 off the bench, first-time starter Lester scored eight.
Guerin Catholic got all but one point out of four players. Will Grissom led all scorers with 25. He scored nine in the opening quarter and 10 in the third. Gillis and Kaleb Edwards each scored 13 before fouling out. Bobilya had 12 before being disqualified on fouls.
“After tonight, I feel confident if we can put four quarters together we can come out on top in a lot of games, a lot more games than people expect us to,” Robertson said. “We just have to stay focused and keep getting better every day in practice. Coach Meredith has us moving in the right direction.”
The Cougars are off until a Friday, Dec. 4 game at Hagerstown.
