For the Daily Journal
PLAINFIELD
Facing a decided height disadvantage, Greenwood’s boys basketball team held up relatively well Friday night at Mid-State Conference rival Plainfield.
But the Woodmen’s first-half shooting struggles were too much to overcome.
Greenwood shot just 30 percent in the first half, while the host Quakers used their size edge to take, and make, many more high-percentage shots.
The Woodmen heated up in the second half, whittling a 15-point deficit to four, but couldn’t get any closer as Plainfield escaped with a 68-62 win.
The loss dropped the Woodmen to 10-10 overall and 1-4 in conference play, while Plainfield improved to 12-6 and 3-2.
Greenwood connected on 41.1 percent of its shots from the field (23 of 56).
“We played hard, and played well when we shared the ball, but we weren’t consistent enough,” Woodmen coach Bruce Hensley said. “They were zoning us, and Adam Rapp got in foul trouble early, and we needed him against the zone.”
Rapp went to the bench with his second foul with 3:05 remaining in the first quarter and Greenwood leading 10-9. Plainfield scored seven of the game’s next nine points, then added a 10-0 second-quarter run to build a 29-17 lead with 3:04 remaining in the first half.
The Quakers’ lead swelled to 39-24 with 4:17 remaining in the third quarter before the Woodmen mounted a comeback. They scored the next eight points to get within seven and then, thanks in large part to 4-of-8 3-point shooting in the fourth quarter, cut the deficit to 55-51 on an Eric Moenkhaus 3 with 2:47 to go.
“We made more shots in the second half, but we didn’t do a good enough job of communicating on the floor with each other,” Hensley said. “We let little things bother us.”
Moenkhaus led Greenwood with 25 points and nine rebounds, while Jeffrey Reynolds added 14 points and eight boards despite having to battle in the paint with 6-foot-10 Gavin Bizeau and 6-7 Conner Brens. Reynolds stands 6-foot-6.
As Greenwood mounted its comeback effort, it had only committed two team fouls entering the fourth quarter. The Woodmen had to foul repeatedly to get Plainfield into the bonus to get the ball back, and finally committed their seventh team foul with 1:31 to play.
“That obviously hurt us, because so much time went off the clock while we were doing that,” Hensley said. “We just have not been consistent defensively all year. At times we did a good job (Friday), but we just haven’t done it enough.”
Bizeau led everyone with 30 points, including several breakaway dunks off Greenwood’s fullcourt pressure in the fourth quarter. Braydon Kincaid contributed eight points and eight rebounds for the Woodmen, who conclude Mid-State play next Friday at Mooresville.
