<p>Good basketball teams find a way to grind out victories even when things aren’t going very smoothly.</p><p>Center Grove’s girls survived one of those rough nights on Thursday.</p><p>The Trojans had a 14-0 blitz in the first half of an otherwise arid evening offensively, then held off a late Brownsburg charge to earn a 40-34 victory on their home floor.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>“Our shots just weren’t falling,” senior guard Claire Rake said, “but it’s just nice that we still came out with the win.”</p><p>Class 4A No. 8 Center Grove (14-2) turned the ball over on its first three possessions during a first quarter that saw the two teams combine for as many giveaways (11) as points, and the 13th-ranked Bulldogs briefly took a 3-2 lead on a free throw with 2:40 left in the period.</p><p>But the Trojans’ defense stayed locked in, and the offense eventually followed suit for long enough to make the difference. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mary Wilson and Rake capped a run of 14 consecutive points over a span of a little more than four minutes that left Center Grove comfortably in front, 16-3, with 6:28 to go in the half.</p><p>Many of those points came out in the open floor after turnovers or long rebounds at the other end.</p><p>“When teams are focusing on me and Mary or any other shooter, it’s nice to get easy buckets in transition,” Rake said. “I know the one 3 that I had was on a steal and then an open shot in transition, and I think Mary had a couple too. It is nice to get us into a flow when it’s hard for us sometimes to get the ball in halfcourt.”</p><p>The points came at a very slow trickle after that, with the Trojans going nearly eight minutes without a field goal over the second and third quarters and still maintaining a solid lead. Even after a two-point third period, Center Grove still took a 23-16 advantage into the fourth.</p><p>In a game like this one, a seven-point margin might as well have been 20 — and after three foul shots and a Wilson layup pushed it to 12 with less than five minutes to go, the Trojans had all but sealed it. Brownsburg (9-7) surged late and got as close as four, 32-29, on a Kailyn Terrell 3 with 1:31 remaining, but the home team managed to hang on despite leaving a window open with seven missed free throws in the fourth quarter and 11 overall.</p><p>Allison Bosse scored a game-high 17 for the Bulldogs, who shot just 12 of 40 from the floor, including 6 of 25 over the first three quarters.</p><p>Wilson led the Trojans with 13 points, while Rake added nine and Alainna Frankel seven.</p><p>It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but Center Grove will take comfort in knowing that even when it’s not firing on all cylinders, it can still close a game out.</p><p>“It makes us more confident,” Rake said, “but it also keeps us hungry, because we know we didn’t play very well, but we still beat a very good team.”</p>
