By Seth Tow
For the Daily Journal
BLOOMINGTON
Center Grove boys basketball is headed to the sectional championship game for the second consecutive year.
The Trojans came to Bloomington North on Friday and came out with a 52-38 win over the host Cougars in a Class 4A semifinal on Friday. They advance to tonight’s sectional championship game against Martinsville, a 65-61 winner over Bloomington South in the early semifinal.
Center Grove (19-4) couldn’t quite assert itself until late in the second half. A deep 3-pointer by senior Joey Schmitz with around 10 seconds left in the third quarter stretched the Trojan lead from two points to five, and that set up a dominant fourth quarter on both ends. Bloomington North (12-12) scored just seven points in the final period.
“In the second half, we kind of instilled our will defensively, made them take some tough shots, and they made a couple early,” Center Grove head coach Zach Hahn said after the game. “And then offensively, I thought we just did a good job sharing the ball and finding the easy play around the rim.”
Bloomington North defeated Center Grove in last year’s sectional title game, so this result avenged that defeat for the Trojans. But Hahn asserted his team was focused only on this year’s game and wasn’t caught up in those sorts of emotions.
And on this night, Will Spellman took over for Center Grove. The 6-foot-6 forward dominated in the paint. He posted a double-double just in the second half, with 14 points and 10 rebounds — he racked up eight points and seven rebounds in the third quarter alone. Spellman finished the game with 20 points on 8 for 15 shooting and a 4 of 5 mark at the foul line. The senior grabbed 13 rebounds.
“He was finding the gaps in the zone, and having two bigs, they had to double down on Mike (Ephraim) or Ben (Chestnut). And then Will was able to kind of attack one on one in the middle of the paint, which he’s really good at,” Hahn said. “The other thing I’ll say is, he might have had two or three offensive tip-ins, and he could’ve probably had six of them, because he kept tipping it. He was just relentless on the glass, both ends.”
North established a 15-12 lead by the end of the first quarter, but the Trojans made it up in the second quarter to tie the game at 22 by halftime. Peyton Byrd led CG with seven points at halftime.
Schmitz also finished in double figures with 13 points.
After the game, Hahn quickly turned his team’s attention to tonight.
“(I told them) you can enjoy it for the next 10 minutes, and then we’re getting ready for the next team,” Hahn said. “You’ve got to be a next-possession team, and that’s what these guys have done a good job all year on. I anticipate they’re going to do it tomorrow, too.”
