If ever a limited-attendance situation sounded like a full gymnasium, it was Tuesday night at Whiteland.
Center Grove was in town, and for three quarters the Trojans and host Warriors went at it to the tune of seven ties and 10 lead changes in the opening round of the Johnson County tournament.
The Trojans eventually pulled away for a 60-53 triumph, with a 10-3 scoring run to open the final stanza being the difference.
“Early on, I thought we settled a lot for outside shots, but it kind of started at halftime, I think. I thought Ethan McComb getting the strip and the layup right before, and then Tyler Cerny came in and did a great job guarding (Logan) Willoughby,” Trojans coach Zach Hahn said after watching his squad improve to 5-3 and qualify for Friday’s semifinal against Franklin.
“And then I thought Shane Bennett was unreal down low for us. We’ve talked a lot about our depth and how important it is for our group this year, but I was really pleased with guys coming in and being ready to play. They stepped up and did what we asked them to. It was a great team win. Whiteland is a really good team and it was a hard-fought win.”
Senior guard Landin Hacker led all scorers with 22 points for Center Grove. Bennett, a 6-foot-4 backup forward, finished with 10 points and three rebounds. Eight of the junior’s points came in a stretch that lasted from the final 1:42 of the third period to the opening 2:15 of the fourth.
Whiteland (4-5) received 15 points and six boards from Willoughby, with junior center Max Sullivan adding 14 points.
The frenetic first half concluded with the Warriors ahead, 27-25. There were seven lead changes and 10 triples made, five by each squad, before the halftime horn sounded.
Whiteland opened up a quick 7-3 advantage, but consecutive 3s by Marcus Ankney and Hacker pulled the visitors closer until Warriors junior wing Kyson Jones stepped back to knock down one of his own at the 4:17 mark of the first.
A Sullivan-led charge enabled the Warriors to go up 17-11 late in the stanza, but Hacker, who had four treys in the opening quarter alone, swished the last two inside the last 1:05 to knot the score. Willoughby tallied all but two of Whiteland’s 10 points in the second period.
But it was the aforementioned steal by McComb in the final seconds of the second that gave the Trojans a boost heading into the locker room. Hacker’s old-fashioned three-point sequence, followed by a Bennett bucket in close, put Center Grove ahead, 43-38, with 55 seconds gone in the fourth. Whiteland never got closer than four points after that.
“If you look at the first five possessions we had in the fourth quarter, four of those were turnovers, but a couple of those were offensive fouls,” Whiteland coach Nate Cangany said. “I thought we attacked the basket pretty well tonight, but in that first stretch of the fourth quarter, you can’t have four out of five possessions be turnovers.
“In a game that was that close, every possession counted. We’ve played six games in 11 games, and in the last week we’ve played four top 40 teams in the state. Out of the four games, 90 percent of what we’re doing is what we want to do. We’re playing well for a large portion of the game. But against good teams it can’t be 30 minutes. It has to be 32. Our guys are growing up before our eyes and we’re excited for the second half of the season.”
