INDIANAPOLIS
Drew Glentzer could use payback as motivation, but won’t.
Instead, the Indian Creek’s boys basketball coach will talk to his players about what is at stake for them — both currently and historically — when the Braves face host Beech Grove in this evening’s Class 3A sectional championship game.
Tip-off is at 7.
“There are a couple pictures of them (last season) on our home court cutting nets down,” said Glentzer, whose squad staged a furious second-half rally to defeat Speedway, 67-57, in Friday night’s second semifinal. “But the kids are smart enough to understand that was then and this is now.
“I’m not sure how far we would have to date it back to when Indian Creek was in the sectional championship two years in a row, but it’s probably been a minute. Maybe back to the 1980s.”
Indian Creek has been eliminated from the postseason by Beech Grove three of the last four years, including last year’s sectional final on the Braves’ home floor. The Hornets (17-5) took care of business in the opening semi on Friday, jumping on Ritter early and coasting to a 67-49 victory.
The Braves (10-14) literally saved their best for last, erasing a 13-point halftime deficit with a 21-7 dominance in the third quarter and gradually pulling away in the fourth. Indian Creek placed four players in double figures, led by senior guard Mason Britt’s 19 and the 18 of smooth southpaw Javan Crouch.
Junior frontliners Ethan Garriott and Braxton Christie added 12 and 10 points, respectively; senior post Christian Wiseman finished with eight points and 10 rebounds. Garriott crashed the glass for seven boards of his own, with Britt and Christie contributing six apiece.
The Sparkplugs trailed, 14-11, late in the first quarter when they rattled off eight consecutive points to go ahead by five. Still holding a three-point edge after one, consecutive Speedway 3-pointers from Reis Walker and Drew Valentine pushed the advantage to nine in the first 76 seconds of the second stanza.
It was the fifth and sixth trey of the half for the Sparkplugs; they added another with 2:06 remaining before halftime to go up, 35-26, then made all four free throw attempts to take their biggest lead, 13 points, at the break.
But as listless as the Braves looked in the second quarter, they completely flipped the script in the third. Speedway led 41-27 early before a Christie 3-pointer started what amounted to a 9-0 Indian Creek scoring run. Glentzer’s club remained poised and continued to claw back, taking the lead for good on Garriott’s runner along the baseline at the 1:25 mark.
“I was just proud of our effort,” Glentzer said. “I challenged them at the half and told them Speedway played harder than you did in the first half. We pick up man-to-man full, and we got after them a lot more. Once we started playing with the right energy, we were much better when we were fast.
“They all rallied. All of them battled.”
