GREENFIELD — Once the style and pace of the basketball game was to Greenfield-Central’s liking, the 14th-ranked Cougars rolled to their 13th straight win.
It just took the 15-1 Cougars a little time to get there.
Down six points at halftime, Greenfield-Central picked up the tempo. The Cougars led by two heading to the final quarter and went on to a 56-43 Hoosier Heritage Conference win over Delta at Dellen Automotive Gymnasium Thursday.
“Coach (Luke Meredith) got on us at halftime. Obviously, he was not happy. We came out flat, which happens sometimes when you are on a roll like we are,” Greenfield-Central senior guard Dylan Moles said. “It’s easy to get stagnant and come out flat. We found a way to come out faster and more aggressive in the second half.
“I felt like we let (Delta) dictate the pace of the game in the first half. They ran that zone and we kind of just took the shots they wanted us to take instead of taking the shots we wanted to get. What helped in the second half was just playing our game at our pace and getting the shots we want to get.”
Moles did get a shot he wanted early.
He opened scoring with a 3-pointer just 30 seconds into the action. It was the 182nd 3-pointer of his career, making him the school’s all-time leader. The old record of 181 was set by Tate Hall, recently inducted into the G-C Athletics Hall of Fame. Hall is a 2016 graduate and was a key contributor for the NCAA tournament teams at Loyola University of Chicago.
Moles hit one in the second half, too, to give him 183. He finished with a game-high 24 points, scoring 17 in the final two quarters.
“I grew up watching Tate,” Moles said. “He was someone I always looked up to. When you’re in fifth and sixth grade you look up to guys like that who are breaking records and winning games.”
The Cougars went on a 10-2 run in the first two-plus minutes of the second half. Seven of the points were by Moles. He scored with 5:20 remaining in the third period to give the Cougars a 29-27 lead.
A bucket from Delta leading scorer D’Amare Hood gave the Eagles a 32-29 lead with 3:44 remaining in the third. The Cougars answered with the next 15 points.
G-C sophomore Braylon Mullins started the run with a 3-pointer. He and Owen Anderson each hit a free throw to give the Cougars a 34-32 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
Mullins had a bucket to start the fourth and Moles and Kerkhof had two each to bump the lead to 44-32 in the first three minutes of the final period.
Moles finished 11 of 17 from the field (64.7 percent). He was 8 of 12 (66.7 percent) in the second half. Mullins added 16 points, 11 in the second half.
“Dylan Moles kind of took over,” Meredith said. “I’ll say it again, you can’t tell me there are 14 players better than him in the state of Indiana. I think he’s an Indiana All-Star. He just broke the all-time 3-point record … He’s No. 3 or No. 4 in scoring and he’s top 10 in assists. He’s a great young man and was was our catalyst (Thursday).”
With the win, the Cougars end HHC play with a 6-1 record. They could still win or get a share of the conference title. New Palestine leads at 5-0 and has games remaining with Shelbyville and Mt. Vernon. The Marauders are 4-1 in league games with a season-ending game against Yorktown to go with the matchup against the rival Dragons.
“I’m trying to get our kids to understand that winning is not normal. It’s not easy, especially in this conference against a coach (Mark Detweiler) and a program like Delta,” Meredith said of his team’s Thursday’s turnaround. “I think, in the first half we took that for granted and went through the motions.
“With this team, and the reason we’ve won 13 in a row, every time I challenge them, they always respond. I said, ‘Are we going to fight, or are we going to fold? I looked them in the eye and gave them a passionate speech, but it wasn’t me or what I said. It was them refusing to lose. They bought in defensively, hit some shots and made some plays down the stretch.”
Delta dropped to 10-8 and 1-4 in the HHC.
The Cougars return to action Saturday with a 1:30 p.m. home game against Greenwood.
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Greenfield-Central 56 , Delta 43
Delta;10;15;7;11;—;43
Greenfield-Central;10;9;15;22;—;56
Delta (10-8, 1-4): Blake Jones 1 2-2 5, D’Amare Hood 6 0-0 15, Jackson Wors 5 1-5 11, Kaiden Bond 4 0-1 8, Jonny Manor 0 0-0 0, Jayden Furney 2 0-0 4, Caleb Elliott 0 0-0 0, Caleb Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 3-8 43.
Greenfield-Central (16-1, 6-1): Braylon Mullins 5 4-6 16, Will DeJarnett 1 0-0 2, Braden Robertson 1 0-0 2, Dylan Moles 11 0-0 24, Tyler Kerkhof 2 0-0 4, Owen Anderson 3 1-2 8, Jake Hinton 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 5-8 56.
3-point goals: Delta 4 (Hood 3, B. Jones); Greenfield-Central 5 (Mullins 2, Moles 2, Anderson)
