INDIANAPOLIS
Indian Creek chose the worst possible time to find itself trailing.
The Braves led or were tied with Indianapolis Washington for all but the game’s final minute in Tuesday night’s Class 3A sectional opener at Speedway.
Maintaining it against the athletic, quick-handed Continentals was the hard part. Senior James Holder’s putback of a Erric Hickenbottom miss proved the difference as Washington escaped with a wild 65-63 victory.
Indian Creek (5-17) came in with nothing to lose, and played like it the majority of the contest.
“I kept saying in the last three or four minutes, we’re out of juice,” said Braves coach Drew Glentzer, whose club was leading, 25-11, at 5:06 of the second quarter and by nine (55-46) early in the final stanza.
“We played really hard. We obviously got in some immense foul trouble, and our rotation got cut back a little bit after guys started fouling. You know, a loose ball here, a rebound there, that was the difference in the game.”
Indian Creek’s performance proved both a tribute to the squad’s veteran players and a 32-minute peek at what appears to be a promising future.
Four Braves scored in double figures, led by senior guard Javan Crouch and his younger brother, freshman guard Adam Crouch, with 16 points apiece. Another ninth-grader, 6-4 wing Landon Sichting, finished with 14, while senior Braxton Christie added 10 despite battling foul trouble most the game.
That quartet enabled Indian Creek to ward off virtually every Washington scoring run by responding with one of its own.
Adam Crouch’s triple from the right wing with 6:12 still showing had the Braves ahead, 58-50. Washington went on an 8-0 run to tie the score with 2:44 remaining, but an old-fashioned three-point sequence from Javan Crouch after a short pullup jumper put Indian Creek back on top at the 2:19 mark.
The Continentals went ahead for the first time on a trey from senior guard Amonn Burns, 63-61, but the Braves alertly tied it by breaking Washington’s defensive pressure, leading to a layup by senior guard Bryce Armstrong.
Continentals coach Aaron Hogg called timeout to set up the final play, resulting in the 6-foot-6 Holder’s game-winner.
If it’s possible to carry momentum into the offseason despite losing in heartbreaking fashion, the Braves will.
“We knew coming into this game we were playing the best basketball we’ve played all season,” Glentzer said. “Unfortunately, our record didn’t really indicate that, but we’ve had six to eight games where we’ve been getting better.
“We played Greenwood and all these different games really well. We just had a bad four- or five-minute stretch. Most of that’s due to physicality. Some of the kids will get stronger, but I hated it for the seniors. It’s a special group of kids, and unfortunately, we came out on the wrong end. But we battled.”
