Center Grove boys win at Whiteland

<p>The last two times that the Center Grove boys basketball team played at Whiteland, it wound up on the losing end of the scoreboard.</p><p>For one half of Friday night’s showdown, it appeared that could happen again. But the Trojans rode the momentum of a third-quarter run to a 72-57 victory, their first at Glenn Ray Gymnasium in four years.</p><p>&quot;This is a tough place to play,&quot; Center Grove coach Zach Hahn said. &quot;Every game we come here, it seems like it’s a pretty packed house, the student section’s loud, and when they make shots early, teams are tough to beat at home. You give them confidence — and I think that’s what I was most impressed with, was the fact that in the second half, they still made some shots, but I think they were a little tougher and a little more contested.&quot;</p><p>Center Grove came out hot, getting 3-pointers from Spencer Piercefield and Ben Nicoson during an 8-2 run to start the game. But the Warriors stayed within range, eventually tying the game on a pair of occasions in the second quarter on treys from Carter Crowe and Nick Angerer before Trayce Jackson-Davis scored in the final minute to give the Trojans a 27-25 halftime edge.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Whiteland did most of its first-half damage from deep; all 15 of the Warriors’ points in the second quarter came on 3-pointers. But after inside buckets from Brennan Neal and Crowe tied the game up again at 29-29 early in the third period, Nicoson hit another 3 to give Center Grove a lead that held up the rest of the way. A 3 from Luke Helton brought the Warriors to within 37-34 with 4:30 left in the third, but the Trojans responded by scoring the next 12 points to create a more comfortable cushion. </p><p>The biggest difference in that stretch was on the boards. Outrebounded by the smaller Warriors in the first half, Center Grove asserted itself on the glass after the intermission, with Jackson-Davis limiting Whiteland’s second-half chances and Justin DeGraaf taking advantage of some putback opportunities on offense. The frontcourt duo combined for 16 of the Trojans’ 24 third-quarter points.</p><p>&quot;We were struggling in the first half on the glass,&quot; DeGraaf said. &quot;I think we were being beat 13-9 (on the boards) — but we got that back, got out on the fast break and got some buckets.&quot;</p><p>Whiteland couldn’t get any closer than seven in the final period, as Jackson-Davis hit seven of his eight free throw attempts to help put it away.</p><p>Jackson-Davis limped off with 5:34 left in the second quarter, heading to the locker room with an apparent ankle injury. But he returned to the floor quickly, playing the final 3:47 of the half, and felt well enough afterward to spend a good chunk of the second half guarding Neal, who finished with 16 points but didn’t score in the fourth quarter.</p><p>&quot;I wanted to pick him up, because he was doing a lot of good things for them,&quot; Jackson-Davis said. &quot;So I tried to terminate that the best I could, but he’s a great player; he’s hard to guard.&quot;</p><p>Jackson-Davis finished with 26 points and seven rebounds for Center Grove, while DeGraaf added 16 points and Nicoson and Piercefield had 10 each. Crowe scored 20 points to lead the Warriors.</p><p>&quot;I was very disappointed we lost, because I thought that throughout the game, we were positioning ourselves to have an opportunity to win,&quot; Whiteland coach Matt Wadsworth said. &quot;I’m not disappointed with our effort; I’m not disappointed with our execution of the game plan. I just think there’s a lot of basketball left, and we’ve got to focus on that journey of making the most of every day practice to get better, and every game we play as well.&quot;</p>