By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS — Four straight road games to open up 2023, and three games in the last five days would cause issues for most teams. But for Greenfield-Central, they just continue to get stronger.
To cap off the third straight road victory, the Cougars traveled to Indianapolis and defeated Shortridge 87-44.
The Cougars (11-1) increased their win streak to eight games since their lone loss to New Palestine in early December.
Over the weekend, the Cougars defeated Hoosier Heritage Conference opponent New Castle at storied Chrysler Fieldhouse, and Hancock County rival Eastern Hancock in front of a sold-out crowd.
A Tuesday night in Indianapolis brought forth a much calmer atmosphere.
“I just didn’t want this to be a trap game,” Greenfield-Central head coach Luke Meredith said. “We tell our kids that it’s anytime, anywhere, anyplace. It’s easy to go play in the biggest high school gym, the fieldhouse. It’s easy to go play at Eastern Hancock in front of a sold-out crowd. This was BYOJ — bring your own juice.”
It took the Cougars some time to find that juice that Meredith and the coaching staff look for, but when they did, the flood gates opened.
A 3-pointer from Shortridge’s Ethan Powell near the end of the first quarter tied things at 13-13, before Braylon Mullins free throws gave the Cougars the lead. But the Cougars were searching for more than just a two-point lead.
“I talk to our guys a lot about the little things. It’s a cliché, but if I walked into a gym and didn’t know either team, it’s about who’s playing harder and which team deserves the victory,” Meredith said. “I told them in between quarters that we came in here wearing shirts with a juice box on it, we have work shirts, and we came in here to do work. And they were the ones out-working us.”
Mullins, Dylan Moles, and Tyler Kerkhof made sure that two-point lead grew quickly.
Led by those three, the Cougars opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run.
“I do think that we got punched in the mouth in the first quarter, and just like all season, the kids responded,” Meredith said. “The second and third quarters, we did what we’re supposed to do.”
Kerkhof kicked things off with a 3-pointer and Moles added a layup before Mullins hit a 3-pointer, and took a steal coast-to-coast for a layup to cap off the run.
Late in the quarter, another Mullins steal led to a breakaway dunk, and a layup at the buzzer made things 44-23 heading into the half.
Mullins scored 12 of his game-high 25 points in the second quarter. Kerkhof scored eight of his 11 points, and Moles scored seven of his 22 points.
Moles and Mullins each added seven more in the third quarter, but it was Moles ability to distribute the ball that gave a new aspect to the Greenfield-Central offense.
While the Cougars big three scored 42 of the team’s 44 first-half points, the other four members of Greenfield-Central’s rotation found the basket in the third quarter for a combined 15 points.
In the final few minutes of the quarter, Moles assisted on five straight Cougars’ baskets.
For the first two, he hit Braden Robertson cutting to the basket for an open layup, and found Robertson in the corner for a 3-pointer.
The next two were to Jacob Hinton. A no-look pass from Moles set up an easy layup, and on the next possession he found Hinton once again open on the block.
He capped off the assist streak by finding Owen Anderson open on the left wing for a 3-pointer.
To end the quarter, he hit a three of his own to give the Cougars a 73-40 lead.
“This was four straight road games to start 2023. We played Friday, Saturday, got Sunday off, Monday we’re off from school, so we watched film from 10 to noon, but only had one day to prepare,” Meredith said. “Not many teams are going to come play an IPS school on a Tuesday, so I’m just proud of the way our guys competed, and it’s just what we’ve done all year.”
The Cougars will be back at home for the first game in exactly a month when they take on Shelbyville at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
“They’re still a 3A team that plays good basketball, and they’re going to speed you up and trap you and be aggressive. The reason we play teams like this is because in our sectional you have Anderson, Richmond, Muncie Central that all want to speed you up. We had to come play here to try and face that to help us later on in the season.”
Greenfield-Central 87, Shortridge 44
Greenfield-Central;15;29;29;14;-;87
Shortridge;13;10;17;4;-;44
Greenfield-Central (11-1): Dylan Moles 10 1-1 22, Braylon Mullins 10 3-3 25, Tyler Kerkhof 4 0-0 11, Will DeJarnett 1 1-2 3, Braden Robertson 3 0-0 7, Owen Anderson 2 0-0 6, Jacob Hinton 2 0-0 4, Nathan Gasparrini 1 1-1 3, Dallas Freeman 3 0-0 6, Boston Willard 0 0-0 0, Ian Jack 0 0-0 0, Dylan Nance 0 0-0 0. Totals: 36 6-7 87
Shortridge (6-7): Terrance Meredith 1 0-0 3, Ethan Powell 5 0-0 13, Josh Stigger 4 2-2 10, Elias Diallo 0-0 0, Isreal Macon 1 0-0 2, Ethan Martin 4 0-0 10, James Johnson 2 0-1 4, Kurtland Moore 1 0-0 2. Totals: 18 2-3 44
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 9 (Kerkhof 3, Mullins 2, Anderson 2, Robertson 1, Moles 1), Shortridge 6 (Powell 3, Martin 2, Meredith 1)
