When you’re hot, you’re hot — and it’s been a while since the Greenwood boys basketball team has cooked the way it did on Friday night.
Gavin Dowling’s 20 points paced a thoroughly dominating effort inside and out as the Woodmen steamrolled host Franklin, 75-53, for their first win on the Grizzly Cubs’ home floor since February of 2006.
“Tonight may have been the best overall team performance that we’ve had since I’ve been at Greenwood,” third-year head coach Joe Bradburn said, “and I say that from the standpoint that we have a happy locker room. They’re out there, they’re celebrating together, and nobody cares about the points and who’s scoring.
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“They’re moving the ball well. The ball’s not sticking and freezing like it has been in the past.”
Luke Raker and Spencer Aaron came off the bench and hit back-to-back 3s that gave the Woodmen a 10-7 edge midway through the first quarter, and consecutive three-point plays moments later from Dowling and Aaron stretched that advantage to 19-11 with 1:40 to go in the period.
Greenwood (3-1, 2-0 Mid-State) maintained at least a five-point lead for the rest of the half, riding the inside strength of Dowling and Rasheed Elemikan through the second quarter. A drive by Brock Kincaid just seconds before the horn bumped the margin to 37-26 at the half.
The inside success helped open up the outside, and the Woodmen took advantage, hitting five 3-pointers in the third quarter to start pulling away. Consecutive deep balls from Raker and Dowling late in the period bumped the lead to 20 points, and Franklin got no closer than that in the fourth.
Greenwood connected on nine 3s overall, most the result of consistent ball movement.
“My favorite thing is to get the ball in the post, (and) opposite corner, I would say nine out of 10 times, is wide open,” Dowling said of his team’s inside-out attack. “We get a lot of great corner percentage 3s, and as soon as they start hitting, it really spaces up.
“We always strive for that extra-pass mentality, and it really showed off tonight.”
Raker and Aaron finished with 16 and 14 points, respectively, for the Woodmen, who had eight different players make at least two field goals each.
Drew Byerly had 16 points and Damon Dickey 12 for the Grizzly Cubs (2-2, 0-2), who had some positive moments scattered throughout the game but simply couldn’t keep pace on this particular evening.
“(Greenwood) had a lot of successes at a lot of positions,” Franklin coach Brad Dickey said. “Our kids, really, they were paying attention and working together, but failing. It’s unfortunate, I feel bad for our guys, but obviously Greenwood had themselves a bit of a party at our place tonight.”
