Senior Jordan Taulman has been a difference-maker at both ends of the floor for Greenwood Christian.
Daily Journal file photo
While Indian Creek bully-balled its way to a double-digit halftime lead during the first round of the Johnson County tournament last week, Greenwood Christian coach Jackson Williams no doubt wished he could have looked down at his bench and summoned Evan McIntire — a rock-solid 6-foot-1 junior who may well be the best athlete in the school.
Alas, McIntire’s season ended more than six weeks ago when he broke his ankle in a Dec. 7 win at Covenant Christian, a massive blow to a GCA team that didn’t come into the season with a lot of proven depth. But funny things happen sometimes when adversity strikes — your survival instincts kick in and you find strength that you may not have known you had.
The Cougars have indeed found that strength. Instead of letting that injury sink their season, they’ve been able to get contributions from some unexpected sources and remained in the conversation as one of the top Class A teams in the state. Heading into Saturday’s contest at Traders Point Christian, they’re 9-4 and ranked seventh.
In the aforementioned Indian Creek game, Williams leaned heavily on a pair of reserves — junior guard Alieu Ceesay and freshman post Will Simons — to inject some much-needed physicality in the second half, and both made some key hustle plays that allowed GCA to storm back for a 63-57 victory against at Braves team that had won 11 straight.
On other nights, it’s been the likes of senior Reid Smith or junior Eli Jackson filling that all-important fifth spot and doing whatever needs to be done to help the Cougars win.
“Evan is a huge part of our team,” Williams said of his leading rebounder and No. 2 scorer, “and when he went down, you don’t really replace a guy like that. You just hope that you can kind of pick up the slack by committee, and so we’ve had guys that we’ve pulled up from JV, we’ve had guys that have gotten more minutes and bumped into the starting lineup that are older, that were on the bench to start, and they’ve just done an awesome job handling his rebounds and his points by committee.”
Senior Max Booher, who went past the 1,000-point mark for his career earlier this month, is the team’s offensive alpha, scoring 20 points per game this season. He’s not had to go it alone, though; when opposing teams game-plan to take Booher out of the game, others have been able to make them pay.
Junior Noah Reed took the reins late in the Indian Creek game, scoring 12 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to help put GCA over the top. On other nights, it’s been the shooting of junior guard Ben Comerford (7.5 ppg) or the athleticism of senior wing Jordan Taulman (6.0 ppg), the team’s resident defensive stopper.
“Anyone can knock down open shots, create their own shot, so they have to respect everyone,” Booher said. “They can’t just faceguard me, because then everyone else is going to step up.”
Greenwood Christian has succeeded in McIntire’s absence because of a selfless approach to filling his void in the lineup. There hasn’t been any infighting about who gets his minutes or his touches; everyone has been content to do whatever they’re called upon to do in a given situation.
“Whoever’s night it is, we just run them in there, whoever’s playing good for us, and everyone’s okay with who it is,” Reed said. “Everyone wants what’s best for the team.”
That includes McIntire himself. Confined to a large walking boot for the foreseeable future, the multi-sport standout remains a constant presence at games and practices, offering support in any way that he can.
His refusal to wallow in self-pity after his season went up in smoke has helped inspire his teammates to make the most of theirs.
“It was definitely hard, but Evan’s been great,” Booher said. “He’s been with us the whole time and had a great attitude about the whole thing, and I think it’s really helped us seeing how he handles it.”
All of the Cougars have handled it about as well as could be expected.
