A Greenwood boys basketball team known for its defense showed a different side of itself on Friday night.
The Woodmen supplemented their normally stingy D with a timely display of 3-point marksmanship to take control of what started as a back-and-forth affair and continue on to a 62-53 victory over county rival Whiteland.
"I was really focused today, all throughout the day, on shooting the ball," said Greenwood senior guard Charlie Brooks, who scored 18 points and hit four of his team’s nine 3s. "I definitely came into this game prepared."
The Woodmen (5-0, 4-0 Mid-State) broke a halftime deadlock by scoring the first seven points of the third quarter, a pivotal run finished off by the second of Brooks’ four 3-pointers. Whiteland briefly got back to within three with a pair of baskets, but consecutive treys from Rasheed Elemikan and Carter Campbell later in the period gave Greenwood its largest lead of the night to that point at 42-30.
"That can’t happen," Whiteland coach Nate Cangany said. "The third quarter, statistically, has been our best quarter all season. We started (the game) slow, but we fought back and we gave ourselves a chance to be in the game. We were in a good position, but the start of the second half, that can’t happen."
Brooks stretched the margin to 49-35 with another 3 at the 6:19 mark of the fourth. The Warriors (4-3, 0-3) fought back and eventually got as close as 56-49 on a Quinten Gillespie layup with 34.8 seconds remaining, but Greenwood was able to close it out with an Elemikan three-point play and some additional free throws.
"Charlie … he’s got to seek his shot," Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn said of Brooks. "He’s a good shooter. He’s the best shooter on our team, and he’s going to open things up for Brock (Kincaid) and Rasheed if — we need to have an outside attack, and he and Carter both can shoot the ball, and that will allow Brock and Rasheed to attack more in the middle."
Elemikan paced the Woodmen with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Kincaid totaled 13 points and six assists, and Campbell had the other nine points for the winners.
Logan Willoughby led the Warriors in defeat with 18 points, followed by Kyson Jones with 12 and Austin Willoughby with nine.
A Logan Willoughby 3 gave Whiteland a brief one-point edge early, but the Woodmen scored the next eight points to take a 10-3 lead that held up until six points from Kyson Jones sparked an 11-0 Warrior run in the second quarter that made it a 22-18 game.
Campbell ended a Greenwood drought of almost six minutes with an and-one at the 1:39 mark of the second, and a 3-pointer from Elemikan helped the Woodmen tie the game at 24-24 going into the break.
That 3 set the tone for the remainder of the evening, and Greenwood is hopeful that it will carry over into tonight’s game at Brebeuf as well as next week’s Johnson County tournament.
"We’ve only had four games (before this), and we’ve had limited way people have played us," Bradburn said, "so we haven’t really been able to see the whole picture of a rhythm on offense — who’s zoning us, who’s manning us and things like that. Tonight, we took a step in the right direction in understanding that rhythm, and we’re going to continue to build on that.
"But it still starts with these guys on defense, and they understand that too."
