Greenwood’s Jake Mosemann passes the ball out of a crowd of Edinburgh defenders during Tuesday’s Johnson County tournament game.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn picked up a philosophy from coaching under legendary Muncie Central boys basketball coach Bill Harrell.
“Coach Harrell told me, ‘An ugly win is a lot better than a beautiful loss,’” Bradburn said. “I never forget him saying that and it’s stuck in my mind all these years. As frustrated as I want to be, we survived and advanced.”
The host Woodmen slipped past Edinburgh 43-40 Tuesday night in the opening round of the Johnson County tournament. Greenwood (5-7) will face Franklin in a Friday night semifinal at Whiteland.
After coming up with a rebound from missed free throw, Greenwood’s Carter Campbell was fouled and hit one of two free throws to make it 42-38 with 17 seconds left. Caleb Dewey, who led the Lancers (7-5) with 22 points, scored to make it 42-40 with 7.3 seconds left.
After Jake Mosemann hit one of two free throws with 5.6 seconds left to make it 43-40, the Woodmen forced Edinburgh’s Jarrett Turner into taking a long 3-point shot at the buzzer.
The 6-foot-6 Campbell was high for the Woodmen with 19 points, including two 3-pointers. Mosemann added 10 points.
“We really tried to get the ball inside,” Bradburn said. “I think we had an advantage that way.”
Greenwood trailed 7-2 early before going on a 12-0 run to take a 14-7 lead. The Woodmen led 25-20 at halftime. After the Lancers closed to 29-27, the Woodmen finished the third quarter with an 8-0 run to take a 37-27 lead after three quarters.
“It’s been a theme — when we substitute, we let down,” Bradburn said. “I don’t know what we have to do to adjust that. I give Edinburgh a lot of credit; they didn’t back off. They kept fighting. Coach had them focused and confident about what they were trying to do. They came at us. We had 20 turnovers tonight. I can’t explain some of the turnovers. Some were completely on us. Bad decision making, bad spacing.
Connor Ramey added 10 points for the Lancers, who held a 13-6 edge in the fourth quarter.
“I told my guys I thought they fought hard,” Lancers coach Kevin Witty said. “They could have gave up after that third quarter; that was not a good quarter for us. But they battled and found a way to give themselves a shot at the end to win the game.”
Witty said while his team didn’t do a good job rebounding, he was pleased the Lancers forced some turnovers.
“I thought we did a good job of trying to speed them up, make them uncomfortable and make them make passes they didn’t necessarily want to make,” Witty said. “We got pressure on them and let to good stuff for them on the other end.”
Dewey scored 10 of his points in the fourth quarter.
“We told him before the game that he had to step up and show why he’s the reigning county player of the year,” Witty said. “I thought he did a good job and handled a lot of adversity, pushing and shoving on him. He kept his composure pretty well. We need that from him the rest of the year.”
