PLAINFIELD — Greenfield-Central put an exclamation point at the end of its record-setting 2022-23 boys basketball regular season.
The Cougars shot 61.8 percent from the field — 72.2 percent in the first half — and became the winningest team in program history by picking up victory No. 21 in a 69-53 decision over host Plainfield Wednesday.
Ranked No. 10 in both the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Poll (all classifications) and the Associated Press Class 4A ratings, the Cougars will take a 21-1 record into next week’s Class 4A Sectional 9 tournament at Muncie Central. They’ll open against Anderson (18-4) next Wednesday. The Indians are No. 13 in Class 4A and No. 17 overall.
The 21 wins are the most since the Cougars’ 2015-16 team — led by Tate Hall, who played at Loyola of Chicago and was inducted into the G-C Athletics Hall of Fame this year — went 20-5.
“Going back to 2015 watching Tate Hall’s group, they set the record we just beat,” Greenfield-Central leading scorer Dylan Moles said. “Seeing that group, I remember how excited the community was then seeing them play well. Now that we’re able to do it, it’s great.”
On Wednesday, Greenfield-Central hit 8 of 10 first-half 3-pointers and missed just five of their 18 field-goal attempts.
They cooled off in the second half, shooting 50 percent, but the damage had been done. The Cougars finished, unofficially, hitting 21 of 34 shots.
It was an impressive performance against a Plainfield squad that came in with 16 wins.
“This is always a weird game because both of us have just found out who we’re going to play next week in the sectional,” Moles said. “A lot of times you’re really focused on that, but we tried to come out and do what we’ve been doing all year, and do what’s been getting us wins and that’s hit shots. We did that.”
On a Moles’ 3-pointer with 6:17 left in the first half, the Cougars had their first double-figure lead, 19-9. They led by as much as 17, four times, in the first half. The advantage was stretched to 21, 56-35, with 5:36 left in the game.
Senior guard Tyler Kerkhof hit his first four shots, three from 3-point range, and had 11 first-half points. When he finally missed, early in the second half, Moles was there for the offensive rebound and layup to give the Cougars, at the time, their largest lead at 39-21.
Shortly after Greenfield-Central took its first 20-point lead, on a Moles bucket with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter, the Quakers went on an 8-0 run, cutting a 47-27 Cougar advantage to 47-35.
No worries, the four-year veteran Moles had things under control. He hit a fade-away jumper in the lane at the 1:00 mark and finished off the quarter with a deep, straight away 3 with just a couple of seconds left to give G-C a 52-35 lead heading into the final quarter.
“I’ll say it again, Dylan Moles should be an Indiana All-Star,” Greenfield-Central coach Luke Meredith said of the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, beating Hall’s record earlier this season. “What he has done for our program, regardless of what happens in the sectional, he’s a great player and a great young man. When we need somebody to make a bucket it’s always No. 3,”
After connecting on a high percentage of 2-point and 3-point field goals through the first three quarters, the Cougars sealed it in the fourth at the free-throw line. Greenfield-Central hit 13 of 14 at the stripe and finished at 95 percent for the game, making 19 of 20 free-throw attempts.
Moles finished with a game-high 29 points. He made 9 of 12 (75 percent) shots from the field and 2 of 3 from 3-point range. He hit all nine of his free-throw attempts including six in the fourth quarter. He split his points up pretty evenly with 14 in the first half and 15 in the final two quarters.
Sophomore Braylon Mullins had 19 points, 13 in the second half. Kerkhof finished with 15.
Plainfield was led by Cooper Martin and Eli Ellis with 13 points apiece.
The win was the Cougars 18th in a row. Including the end of last season, they’ve won 30 of their last 32 games.
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Greenfield-Central 69, Plainfield 53
Greenfield-Central;14;21;17;17;—;69
Plainfield;7;14;14;18;—;53
Greenfield-Central (21-1): Braylon Mullins 5 6-7 19, Will DeJarnett 3 0-0 6, Braden Robertson 0 0-0 0, Dylan Moles 9 9-9 29, Tyler Kerkhof 4 4-4 15, Owen Anderson 0 0-0 0, Dallas Freeman 0 0-0 0, Nathan Gasparrini 0 0-0 0, Ian Jack 0 0-0 0, Boston Willard 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 19-20 69.
Plainfield (16-6): Cooper Martin 6 1-4 13, Collin Schmidt 4 0-0 9, Cameron Young 2 1-1 6, Garrett Irwin 2 0-2 4, Eli Ellis 4 2-3 13, Noah Smith 4 0-0 8, Caden Vanderbush 0 0-0 0, Grant Irwin 0 0-0 0, Chris Arvanitis 0 0-0 0, Colton East 0 0-0 0, Carson Rogers 0 0-0 0, Trey Barton 0 0-0 0, Landon Gilliatt 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 4-10 53.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 8 (Mullins 3, Kerkhof 3, Moles 2); Plainfield 5 (Ellis 3, Schmidt, Young)
