Greenwood puts away GCA in county opener

<p>The outcome was to Greenwood coach Joe Bradburn’s liking, but he would have liked for it to have come earlier.</p><p>The Woodmen put away neighbor Greenwood Christian, 64-52, in the opening round of the Johnson County tournament at Franklin on Tuesday night.</p><p>Greenwood (4-6) advances to face top-seeded Center Grove in a 6 p.m. semifinal at Edinburgh on Friday.</p><p>Although the Woodmen never trailed in the game, they did have trouble at times with the Cougars, who were especially good from beyond the 3-point arc.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>GCA (6-6) sank 10 3s in the game.</p><p>“I was really pleased with our guys,” Bradburn said. “But we had a chance to salt this away and not even make it close down the stretch, but we made some mental errors with the ball.”</p><p>Greenwood didn’t have a single turnover in the first quarter, had just three in the second quarter and finished with nine overall.</p><p>The Woodmen did hurry some shots, though, which may have annoyed Bradburn, but the coach was fine with his team shooting an impressive 60 percent from the field.</p><p>Greenwood Christian (6-6), though good from the 3-point line, was woeful overall, hitting on only 17 of 41 shots.</p><p>It wasn’t a good night from the free throw line for the Cougars, either, as they hit on only 50 percent.</p><p>Still, they didn’t give up and had whittled down the Woodmen’s lead from double digits to only six entering the fourth quarter.</p><p>But they couldn’t get a run and stop the Woodmen from scoring — Greenwood put up 25 points in the final frame alone.</p><p>“Greenwood played a really good game,” GCA coach Jonny Marlin said. &quot;We failed to get stops at crucial times.  We have to learn as a team to get (them).&quot;</p><p>Greenwood was led Gavin Dowling, who scored a game-high 25 points — 17 of them in the second half.</p><p>Teammate Bryce Hoffman had 13 and T.J. Price added 11.</p><p>Greenwood Christian was led by Champ McCorkle’s 22 points, 12 of which came on 3-point shots. Quentin Steele added 11 points for the Cougars.</p>