Center Grove boys repeat as county champs

<p>It had been a little while since the Center Grove boys basketball team got everything to click at once.</p><p>During the third quarter of Monday night’s Johnson County championship game against Franklin, everything came together.</p><p>The Trojans dominated the eight minutes after halftime to break open what had been a close game, paving the way to a 65-48 victory over the Grizzly Cubs at Edinburgh.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>“I thought our defense led to good offense,” Center Grove coach Zach Hahn said. “We got some stops, we made some catch-and-shoot 3s, and then the big fella (Trayce Jackson-Davis) exerted himself down low like we know he’s capable of doing.”</p><p>Up by just five at the break, 32-27, Center Grove (11-4) were on point at both ends of the floor in the third. Defensively, the Trojans gave up just one field goal, a Reece Thomson jumper at the 6:32 mark, and they answered that basket with 13 consecutive points over the next four minutes to stretch their lead to 19 points.</p><p>Tayven Jackson and Ben Greller closed the period with consecutive 3-pointers to make it 54-31, and Center Grove was able to put it in cruise control from there. Five different Trojans hit 3s in the quarter.</p><p>The combination of that hot outside shooting combined with the inside dominance of Jackson-Davis (23 points, seven rebounds) and Justin DeGraaf (11 points, six boards) was too much for Franklin to overcome.</p><p>“When my teammates are hitting shots, they can’t just have two or three guys collapse on me,” Jackson-Davis said. “They’ve always got to be hesitant and aware of shooters, so it frees up the middle for me.”</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs (9-5) had struggled to keep pace with the Trojans in recent years, losing each of the previous five meetings by double digits — and it appeared that this game was headed down that same road when Center Grove stormed out to a quick 9-0 lead in the first two minutes. But Cory Richards got Franklin started with a 3-pointer, and after he finished off the first quarter with another one the game was deadlocked at 17-17.</p><p>Franklin continued to hang tough through the remainder of the half, even briefly going ahead, 24-23, on a Drew Byerly 3 midway through the second quarter. But Charlie Bemis quickly fed Ben Cooney for a bucket at the other end, starting a 7-0 run that allowed the Trojans to reclaim the upper hand for good.</p><p>Center Grove then put the game away with its dominant third, extending what became a 31-7 surge over the 12 minutes following Byerly’s go-ahead trey.</p><p>“They caught us in some bad rotations, and they seemed to make every shot during that stretch,” Franklin coach Brad Dickey said. “Their defense is pretty good. We had some mishandles, and we missed a few shots of our own, and there you go. You can’t fall behind like that to such a good team.”</p><p>Richards led the Grizzly Cubs with 15 points, while Thomson added 14. Spencer Piercefield and Ben Nicoson chipped in 10 points apiece for Center Grove.</p>