Greenwood didn’t play its best basketball game of the season on Tuesday night. Neither did Center Grove.
But in March, you only have to be good enough to stay alive, and the Woodmen and Trojans both managed to do that — barely.
A big 3-pointer by senior Ty Moore helped Greenwood regain momentum in the fourth quarter, and Rasheed Elemikan’s block on a potential game-winning shot in the closing seconds sealed a 28-27 Woodmen win over upset-minded Franklin in the opening round of the Class 4A Whiteland Sectional.
"Not much good came out of this game except we won," Greenwood guard Brock Kincaid said. "At this time of the year, that’s all that really matters. We’ve just got to survive and advance, and we survived."
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryGreenwood (17-5) will face the host Warriors in the 6 p.m. semifinal. The second semi will pit Shelbyville against Center Grove, which used two late free throws from Tyler Cerny to slip past Franklin Central in Tuesday’s nightcap, 38-36.
Franklin, which had rallied to take its first lead late in the third quarter, still had a 22-19 advantage until Moore knocked down an open 3 from the left wing with 6:13 remaining in the game.
Moore had missed a similarly open look from about the same spot minutes earlier, but got the one his team needed.
"One of them I overthought," he said, "but the next one I put up, it felt good and it went in. As long as I’m shooting without overthinking it, I know it’s going in."
Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn cited that bucket as a key turning point.
"It took a little pressure off," he said. "We were kind of in a funk, and we had to have somebody make a play."
After a back-and-forth exchange of two baskets each by Franklin’s John Shepard and Greenwood’s Elemikan left the Woodmen up one going into the final minute, the Grizzly Cubs had a shot to get the final word — but Elemikan met Max Clark under the rim and rejected his bid for the win.
The Woodmen had taken the early lead on a steal and dunk by Kincaid, the first bucket in a seven-point run that gave the Woodmen a 9-2 edge. The Grizzly Cubs (7-15) stayed within striking distance for the rest of the half, however, before making their move midway through the third quarter.
Shepard converted a three-point play at the 3:37 mark to cut the deficit to one, and Clark and Carson Hunter each converted a steal into a layup during the next 56 seconds to give Franklin its first lead of the game at 20-17.
After Moore’s 3 tied it at 22-22, Greenwood regained the upper hand on a Kincaid jumper with 5:02 to go.
Kincaid finished with a game-high 12 points for the Woodmen, followed by Moore with eight. Shepard and Clark scored 10 and eight, respectively, in a losing effort for the Grizzly Cubs.
In a similarly paced second game, the Trojans struggled to get into an offensive rhythm early and fell into an 8-2 hole. Center Grove’s defense kept it in the game, but the Flashes were able to maintain a lead of between two and six points, going into the intermission with an 18-14 edge.
"We really didn’t hit any shots; that was our problem," Cerny said. "We were getting good looks at the hoop, but we just couldn’t put it in."
Franklin Central looked to be on the verge of pulling away when a Rynell Echols 3-pointer made it 24-17 near the three-minute mark of the third period. But a 3 from Landin Hacker and a buzzer-beater from just inside halfcourt by Tayven Jackson got the Trojans within a point, 28-27, heading into the fourth.
Shane Bennett gave Center Grove a 32-30 lead with 6:08 remaining before Franklin Central responded with two straight baskets to pull back ahead. Two free throws by Jackson briefly put the Trojans back in front before the Flashes tied it with 2:56 on the clock.
Neither team scored again until Cerny, whose defensive aggressiveness helped force the Flashes into a backcourt violation, drove the lane and got fouled with 20.6 seconds to go. He made both shots from the line, and Center Grove got one last stop to pull it out.
"I was just trying to get a good defensive stop, trying to get our team that last point there at the end," Cerny said of the decisive last-minute sequence. "There’s a lot of pressure (on the line), obviously, but I’ve just got to know I’ve got to hit them."
Jackson led the Trojans with 17 points, while Shane Bennett added 10 off the bench.
Having done just enough to move on to Friday, the Trojans and Woodmen both know things aren’t going to get any easier.
"It’s going to be another hard-fought game," Moore said of Greenwood’s upcoming matchup with the host Warriors. "They’re aggressive, they’re diving on loose balls, but we’ve just got to dive on one more of them."
