Turning the basketball over 24 times against a good team like Pike never yields a positive outcome.
Such was the case Friday night for Center Grove, which dropped a 66-52 decision to the Red Devils and, as a result, starts a boys basketball season winless in its first two games for the first time since the 2004-05 season.
Pike had played six games coming in, winning five. All the same, Trojans coach Zach Hahn wasn’t about to use that as an excuse.
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“There are no excuses. Our guys are guys who have been in our program. We haven’t changed anything. We run the same defense and run a little bit different offense, but we don’t make excuses,” Hahn said. “We turned the ball over 24 times, and when you do that against Pike, it makes it tough.
“I thought we fought tonight, same as against Bloomington North. But we had the same result in that our turnovers gave them easy baskets and we have to work for everything.”
Center Grove was led by sophomore guard Tayven Jackson and junior forward Leyton McGovern with 11 points apiece. Junior post Ethan Jones added 10.
The Red Devils, led by senior guard Davion Bailey’s 22 points, committed 19 turnovers of their own. Pike made 18 of 22 free throws compared to a chilly 6 of 13 for the Trojans. The rebounding battle was relatively close with the visitors holding a 26-22 advantage.
Jones and Austin Booker had five boards apiece to lead Center Grove, while Pike junior center Noah Gordon had a game-high eight and Bailey added six.
Pike dominated the game early, jumping to a 22-9 lead early in the second period before the Trojans awoke to make a game of it.
Center Grove’s 12-1 scoring run began with a Booker free throw and a layup from McGovern. A Red Devils’ charity toss stopped the momentum briefly, but the Trojans responded with Jackson’s three-point sequence, two more Booker free throws and Jones driving the baseline for a two-handed dunk.
McGovern scored a layup off one of Pike’s 10 second-quarter turnovers to trim it to 23-21 at the 3:31 mark of the second quarter. However, Pike closed the half with an 11-6 run to hold a 34-27 advantage at intermission, converting five of the team’s 11 made free throws.
The second half resembled the first with the Red Devils racing to a 15-point lead (44-29) at 3:35 of the third, only to watch Center Grove claw back and cut the lead to six at 52-46 midway through the final stanza.
Bailey then scored eight of Pike’s points in what would become a 10-2 run to put the Red Devils in control.
“We just have to get better every day, and later on in the season things will get better for us,” Hahn said. “If they can continue to fight and be together through difficult times, we’re going to get better and this is going to be a good team down the stretch.”
Center Grove is at Martinsville tonight.
