Center Grove’s Jalen Bundy walks off the court after being defeated by Ben Davis in Saturday’s semistate semifinal.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
NEW CASTLE
Opposite ends of a back hallway inside New Castle Fieldhouse played home to contrasting emotions late Saturday morning.
At one end, players and coaches representing defending Class 4A state champion Ben Davis were enthusiastically making plans for that evening’s championship game.
The tone was far more subdued in regard to No. 9 Center Grove, which saw its season come to a close with a 75-49 loss to the Giants in the morning semifinal matchup at the New Castle Semistate.
Playing a near-flawless opening half, eighth-ranked Ben Davis jumped on the Trojans early and often, refusing to allow them in the same area code of striking distance.
The Giants led the entire way, riding two 3-pointers and a baseline jumper from senior wing Ramone Enis, he of the 7.1 scoring average and 13 made treys all season, to a quick 10-3 advantage by 5:18 of the first quarter.
“Their fifth, sixth best offensive player hits two 3s in the first two minutes of the game,” shrugged Trojans coach Zach Hahn. “And then we missed a layup in transition. We missed a wide open 3 from our best shooter and you’re down 6-0.
“The start was huge. The start kind of changed the whole complexity, but that’s three of the last five games we’ve gotten off to a poor start. We didn’t, as a staff, didn’t do a good enough job calling timeouts early and getting our guys locked back in to the way we wanted to defend.”
Ben Davis made good on its first six field goal attempts and was a scalding 15 of 22 from the floor (68.2%) on its way to a 40-23 lead at halftime. Center Grove also put up 22 shots prior to intermission, converting only eight (36.4%).
Hahn’s squad never got closer than 15 points early in the third period, senior center Michael Ephraim’s strong move inside making it 44-29 at the 5:09 mark.
The Giants countered with a 7-0 run on junior forward Tavion Williams’ basket off an alley-oop, an Enis bucket in close and a deep 3 from the right wing courtesy of future Northwestern Wildcat K.J. Windham, a 6-foot-4 guard.
Ball game.
“The biggest thing was they just beat our physicality, and they dominated a couple of things that we usually take care of, but we didn’t take care of this game,” said Center Grove senior forward Peyton Byrd, who finished with eight points and a team-high four rebounds.
“We just didn’t perform. We let a couple shots early affect the rest of the game.”
Center Grove, which took the floor riding a 15-game win streak since three days before Christmas, finishes the season with a 21-5 record. Senior guard Joey Schmitz led the way against Ben Davis with nine points, followed by Byrd and point guard Jalen Bundy with eight each and senior forward Will Spellman adding seven.
Enis was the game’s lone double-digit scorer with 15 points; four of his Giant teammates scored nine apiece, while three other Ben Davis players had six-point efforts.
The Giants finished the game shooting 28 of 46 (60.9%) to Center Grove’s 19 of 48 (39.6%). The Trojans also labored from the foul stripe, making 8 of 16 to Ben Davis’ 12 of 14.
Still, for a team clinging to a .500 record a little more than a week into December, Center Grove’s achievements far outweighed its disappointments. Eight of the 15 players on Hahn’s tournament roster were seniors.
“I’m disappointed. I’m hurt. I’m sad for the seniors. This was a great group because we started off 3-3 and everybody in the state is going, ‘What’s going on?’ It just took some time for the buy-in to happen. It took some time for them to let their guard down.
“We deserved to be in this game, but we didn’t play very well. And a lot of it probably had to do with Ben Davis. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due.”
