<p>SHELBYVILLE</p><p>The Greenwood boys basketball team lost its defensive mojo in its regular-season finale, a surprisingly lopsided 19-point home loss to New Palestine last Friday night.</p><p>Owners of the stingiest scoring defense in Class 4A, the Woodmen rediscovered themselves in plenty of time for Tuesday’s sectional opener against Whiteland.</p><p>Greenwood held the Warriors without a field goal for a stretch of nine minutes and 44 seconds, a span that included the entire second quarter, then pitched almost eight more minutes of shutout ball across the third and fourth periods to slowly pull away for a 50-28 triumph in the first game of the evening at Shelbyville.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>The Woodmen (17-6) will play the host Golden Bears in one Friday semifinal. The other will pit Franklin against Center Grove, which avenged a regular-season loss to Franklin Central on Tuesday by grinding out a 45-42 victory in another defense-heavy battle.</p><p>"We didn’t finish the regular season like we wanted to," Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn said. "We really zeroed in Saturday and had a really good practice, and just got back to what we do and how we control the game."</p><p>Greenwood took the lead for good with a 7-0 surge late in the first quarter. Logan Willoughby’s three-point play cut it to 11-7 going into the second, but the Woodmen buckled down from there, allowing just one Max Sullivan free throw in the period while building a 20-8 halftime lead.</p><p>Junior Rasheed Elemikan, who finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, said that last Friday’s setback helped get the Woodmen refocused for the postseason.</p><p>"(New Palestine) pushed us a lot," Elemikan said. "They put it in our heads that we’re going to have to be tougher for longer in the sectional. … We made some mistakes on defense and we made some mistakes on offense, but as a whole, we learned from the mistakes, and that’s what we did in our practices on Saturday and Monday."</p><p>Whiteland finally ended the long drought in the third quarter, with 3-pointers from Kyson Jones and Reid Wilburn and a Willoughby bucket helping the Warriors get as close as 23-16. Greenwood, though, regained command, with a Nick Duffey 3 at the 1:02 mark sparking an extended run of 13 unanswered points that stretched it to 42-21 with just over three minutes left in the game.</p><p>Spencer Aaron scored a game-high 14 points, all in the second half, for the Woodmen. Rasheed Elemikan added 10 points and seven rebounds in the win, with Gavin Dowling and Duffey scoring nine and eight points, respectively.</p><p>Willoughby paced the Warriors (6-16) with nine points. Wilburn and Sullivan contributed 10 apiece.</p><p>The defeat ended what was at times a bumpy season for Whiteland, but first-year coach Nate Cangany saw plenty of growth from his young team, which graduates just two seniors in Wilburn and Chase Ferguson.</p><p>"Reid and Chase were great for us," Cangany said. "They both went through adversity this year, and they were able to step up down the stretch and help us out and help lay our foundation, but we are very excited about next year, and we just have to make sure that we have an offseason full of improvements."</p><p>In the nightcap, Center Grove (8-14) had its largest lead of the night at 32-25 after junior Landin Hacker delivered a lunging reverse layup, a steal and another buzzer-beating layup in the final five seconds of the third quarter. But the Flashes’ Javon Small scored the first seven points of the fourth to tie the game up, and the junior hit a 3 with 52 seconds remaining to even it up again at 42-42.</p><p>Ben Cooney, the lone Center Grove senior, responded by tipping a missed layup back in at the other end seven seconds later, however, and the Trojans were able to end the game with a pair of defensive stops, beating a Franklin Central team that had posted a decisive 70-52 win when the teams last met on Feb. 8.</p><p>"We came out defensively with way more intensity," said Hacker, who scored a game-high 16 points for Center Grove. "Last time it was a back-and-forth game offensively, so we just came out, we trailed down screens. We came out in a 2-3 (zone), actually, and I guess it just gave us more energy."</p><p>With his team down 16-14 after a slog of a first half, Hacker opened the third with a 3-pointer to put the Trojans in front, and another 3 from Tyler Cerny at the 3:57 mark of the quarter stretched that advantage to 24-18. The Flashes got within one before two Cerny free throws and Hacker’s closing sequence put Center Grove back up by seven going into the final eight minutes.</p><p>From there, the Trojans had just enough gas to get across the finish line.</p><p>"We made just enough plays to squeak by," Center Grove coach Zach Hahn said. "We had some guys really step up and do good things for us on both the offensive and defensive ends. Ben Cooney had eight offensive rebounds; Mason Long came in and he’s guarding their best player (Small) and keeps him in front, keeps him in check. Just an all-around team effort.</p><p>"But you can’t celebrate. You can be happy for about two minutes, because now we’ve got to go play Franklin, who’s playing good basketball as well. They’ve got a senior in Drew Byerly who’s unreal. He’s probably the best player in the county."</p>
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