<p>Greenwood Christian’s boys basketball team had been averaging 70 points a game since managing just 45 in its season opener against Greenwood. The Cougars knew points were again probably going to be hard to come by in Friday night’s rematch with the Woodmen, and they were — but GCA was able to beat its crosstown rival at its own game.</p><p>Riding an aggressive defensive performance, the Class A No. 2 Cougars were able to grit out a 35-32 victory in the semifinal round of the Johnson County tournament at Franklin. The victory earned GCA (12-0) a date with Center Grove in tonight’s championship clash.</p><p>"It was definitely a grind, that game," Greenwood Christian coach Jonny Marlin said. "Each possession had to be valued. I thought early on we had a little too many turnovers, but it was just about getting stops, limiting them to one shot, and I thought as a team we did a really good job of that."</p><p>GCA held the Woodmen to just four points over an eight-minute stretch that ran into the final minute of the fourth quarter, turning a 22-19 third-quarter deficit into a 31-26 lead after Andrew Anderson hit Noah Harris for a breakaway layup with 45 seconds remaining.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>The Cougars then had to weather a late storm, as consecutive baskets from Brock Kincaid trimmed the lead to one with less than 20 seconds left. Greenwood then appeared to steal an inbound pass that would have led to the go-ahead bucket, but a foul was called on the play with 16 seconds left.</p><p>After Champ McCorkle hit a free throw to make it a two-point game, Ian Raker had a decent look at a go-ahead 3, but the shot was off the mark and Anderson snatched up the rebound with 6.5 ticks on the clock. His two free throws effectively iced the game.</p><p>McCorkle, who finished with a game-high 14 points, said that patience and defense were the keys for the Cougars.</p><p>"With less possessions, you definitely have to value each shot more, and I think that’s what we did," he said. "We had to really lock up on the defensive end, and I think we did that, especially late in the game when it mattered."</p><p>Early in the evening, both defenses were nearly impenetrable. The Woodmen went more than 10 and a half minutes without a field goal in the first half, yet still led for much of it due to its own defensive effectiveness. GCA endured its own field-goal drought of nearly eight minutes, with McCorkle scoring the team’s only four points in the first quarter. The Cougars took a slim 13-12 edge into the locker room.</p><p>Back-to-back baskets from Rasheed Elemikan and Spencer Aaron in the final minute of the third quarter marked the fifth lead change of the night and put Greenwood on top, 22-19, going into the fourth before the Cougars evened it up on a 3-pointer from Derek Petersen.</p><p>A back-door layup by Aaron — off of Gavin Dowling’s sixth assist — gave the Woodmen their final lead of the game, 26-25, with 2:43 remaining.</p><p>"We had a defensive game plan, and we laid it out and played it as well as we could have played it," Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn said. "We had guys diving on loose balls, we had guys chesting up, had a couple of blocked shots. We were scrappy, got 50-50 balls — but we have to take care of the basketball, and … in the losses that we’ve had this year, that’s been our Achilles."</p><p>Aaron led Greenwood (8-3) with 10 points, while Raker finished with seven and Kincaid had six. Anderson and Styles McCorkle scored six apiece for GCA, which looks to claim its first-ever county championship in any sport after finally being welcomed into the bracket two years ago.</p><p>"That’d be huge for us," Champ McCorkle said. "It’s tough to get a lot of respect playing these low-level smaller schools, but I feel like if we string three in a row together (against Class 4A teams), then they will have no choice but to respect the work that we put in and really acknowledge our team success."</p>
