<p>You can’t win if you don’t score.</p><p>Center Grove’s girls gave Whiteland concrete proof of that on Friday night, pitching a second-quarter shutout and pulling away for a 50-14 victory in Class 4A sectional semifinal action.</p><p>"Our girls are just locked in doing their job, not trying to do too much," Center Grove coach Kevin Stuckmeyer said. "It’s a lot of fun when all five, all seven, all 12 are completely connected. I thought we were really connected on both ends."</p><p>The host Trojans (20-5) will play in tonight’s championship game against Franklin Central, which wore down a scrappy Greenwood team in the evening’s first semi, 54-45.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Up 12-6 after the first period, Center Grove stretched its lead to a dozen with three straight Ashley Eck baskets down low. A Claire Rake 3-pointer and two more from Mary Wilson made it 27-6.</p><p>All the while, the Trojans were surrendering nothing at the other end, forcing the Warriors into less-than-desirable shots and limiting second opportunities. Even when Whiteland got uncontested chances, the ball refused to bounce its way — the visitors missed all five of their first-half free throws.</p><p>All told, the Warriors were held scoreless for 10 minutes and 33 seconds and endured a fatal stretch of 13:14 between field goals. Whiteland tried to take advantage of its superior size with Toni Joyner and Wilnie Joseph in the paint, but the smaller Trojans managed to negate it.</p><p>"We were connected, all five," Stuckmeyer said. "It wasn’t, ‘You have to guard them one on one.’ Our wings and our perimeter people made it tough to enter it, so even if they did have a small opening, it was hard to throw it when it was open because it’s hard to get it past our ball pressure — and then the back side was guarding two people at once and not making that easy. If you’re posting up, it looks like you’re open, but you don’t see that person behind you."</p><p>Center Grove outscored the Warriors 13-0 in the fourth quarter to put a fitting cap on the night.</p><p>Wilson and Rake led the Trojans with 11 points apiece; Eck added eight points and Alainna Frankel seven.</p><p>Toni Joyner, playing in her final game, led Whiteland with six points.</p><p>"Toni’s one of the best players that I’ve been able to coach," Warriors coach Kyle Shipp said. "You’re not going to find another player, probably, that changes the game as much as she does … a very dynamic player on both ends of the floor, and kind of was a kingpin in some of the success we’ve had the last three or four years."</p><p>Greenwood (5-18) started hot in the opener, getting eight points from Brooklyn Stubblefield over the first 2:23 while building a 12-3 lead. Franklin Central countered with eight straight points to get within one late in the opening quarter, then used another 8-0 run in the second to take its first lead. The Flashes went into the break with a 26-24 edge.</p><p>A pair of Alexus Mobley baskets, the second of which also drew Anna Pritchett’s fourth foul, put the Woodmen in a 33-25 hole early in the third, and they couldn’t get any closer than six the rest of the way.</p><p>The cumulative effect of turnovers (22) and fouls — Pritchett and Stubblefield both took four into the fourth quarter, and the Flashes wound up shooting 27 free throws — was too much for Greenwood to overcome.</p><p>"We came out in the first quarter and we executed our game plan," Woodmen coach Justin Bennett said. "In the second quarter, I thought we got a little sporadic.</p><p>"The calls were the calls; even with them having foul trouble, we still maintained to be within seven or eight points at a time, and I think it got away from us toward the end."</p><p>Stubblefield led the Woodmen with 14 points, while Ashley Buster added 12 on four 3-pointers. Quinn Kelly chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds, Jenna Sawyer had seven points and six boards and Pritchett dished out six assists before fouling out late.</p><p>Rachel Loobie had game highs of 18 points and 14 rebounds for Franklin Central.</p><p>Greenwood, which returns everyone who played Friday except for Buster, the team will try to build on the progress that Bennett has seen this season, even if it didn’t show up in the win column.</p><p>"We’re still trying to learn how to win and finish games at times," he said. "I think we’ve grown a lot, regardless of what the record is and regardless of the scoreboard tonight. We have grown so much, and I think this will pay dividends for us next year."</p><p>Center Grove, meanwhile, moves on to the challenge of trying to contain surefire Indiana All-Star Loobie and the Flashes tonight. The Trojans defeated Franklin Central in their season opener, 44-36, back in early November.</p><p>"We’ll definitely prepare for them again in the morning, so we can hopefully shut her down," Frankel said. "We’re trying to help out so more people are guarding the ball, which will help our one-on-one defense."</p><p>"You just have to make her earn it," Stuckmeyer added.</p>
