The outcome was to Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn’s liking, but he would have liked for it to have come earlier.
The Woodmen put away neighbor Greenwood Christian, 64-52, in the opening round of the Johnson County tournament at Franklin on Tuesday night.
Greenwood (4-6) advances to face top-seeded Center Grove in a 6 p.m. semifinal at Edinburgh on Friday.
Although the Woodmen never trailed in the game, they did have trouble at times with the Cougars, who were especially good from beyond the 3-point arc.
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GCA (6-6) sank 10 3s in the game.
“I was really pleased with our guys,” Bradburn said. “But we had a chance to salt this away and not even make it close down the stretch, but we made some mental errors with the ball.”
Greenwood didn’t have a single turnover in the first quarter, had just three in the second quarter and finished with nine overall.
The Woodmen did hurry some shots, though, which may have annoyed Bradburn, but the coach was fine with his team shooting an impressive 60 percent from the field.
Greenwood Christian (6-6), though good from the 3-point line, was woeful overall, hitting on only 17 of 41 shots.
It wasn’t a good night from the free throw line for the Cougars, either, as they hit on only 50 percent.
Still, they didn’t give up and had whittled down the Woodmen’s lead from double digits to only six entering the fourth quarter.
But they couldn’t get a run and stop the Woodmen from scoring — Greenwood put up 25 points in the final frame alone.
“Greenwood played a really good game,” GCA coach Jonny Marlin said. "We failed to get stops at crucial times. We have to learn as a team to get (them)."
Greenwood was led Gavin Dowling, who scored a game-high 25 points — 17 of them in the second half.
Teammate Bryce Hoffman had 13 and T.J. Price added 11.
Greenwood Christian was led by Champ McCorkle’s 22 points, 12 of which came on 3-point shots. Quentin Steele added 11 points for the Cougars.
