Center Grove boys basketball coach Zach Hahn liked his basketball team’s showing for much of Friday night’s game.
“Against Pike, you have to play for 32 minutes,” Hahn said. “We played really well for 27. In those five minutes, they can go for 15 points, and that’s kind of what they did.”
Senior guard Ryan Conwell scored 31 points to help Pike rally for a 66-54 victory over the host Trojans in Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference action.
“He’s a good player; for the most part we kept him in front,” Hahn said. “Then he hit five 3s, and some of them were 25-footers. When you have a guy that good that can do that, you have to live with some of those 25-footers, because you don’t want him going to the rim and getting us in foul trouble.”
Center Grove (1-3, 0-1 MIC) led 13-12 after one quarter and 29-27 at halftime.
The Trojans pushed the led to 39-31 before the Red Devils (2-1, 1-1 MIC) went on a 27-2 tear, including 25 unanswered points, to take 58-41 lead. The Red Devils led 49-41 after three quarters. Conwell, who has signed with the University of South Florida, scored 13 points in the third quarter.
“The bad part of it is that’s how the games goes sometimes,” Hahn said. “I felt we had open looks and missed. They had open looks and made it. It started when we had two guys dive on the ball like they are supposed to, it bounces right off both of them into their player’s hands, they move it one pass and get a 3.”
Cetner Grove had 11 turnovers, but just four in the second half.
Dante Porch scored all 14 of his points in the second half for Pike.
Marcus Ankney was high for the Trojans with 20 points. Tyler Cerny added 13 points but was hampered by foul problems. He picked up his fourth foul with 1:15 left in the third quarter.
“I thought (Cerny) did a good job in the half-court keeping Conwell in front,” Hahn said, “and then he got in foul trouble and we had to move other guys on him and slipped away pretty quickly.”
Hahn sees some positives.
“Our effort all year has been fantastic,” Hahn said. “Our togetherness has been fantastic. The good news is it’s early in the year. As much as I don’t want to admit this, I think we’re getting better each week. The competition is getting better. We’re playing better competition. I think we’re better than what we were two weeks ago. I think we’re better than what we were last week. I saw some growth. We have to find a way to play for 32 minutes and not for 27.”
The Trojans will play at Martinsville tonight.
