Indian Creek’s near-perfect first half gave the Braves some cushion when they needed it most on Friday.
The result was a 69-61 victory over visiting Greenfield-Central that ended the team’s two-game losing streak and improved its overall record to 6-3.
Senior forward Jace Russell led a balanced attack for Indian Creek with team-highs of 22 points and seven rebounds. Three of his teammates also produced double-figures in points — Cooper Britt’s 18, Isaiah Lacey’s 11 and junior guard Xavier Ferris with 10.
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Trailing by as many as 21 points in the second quarter, the Cougars battled back to close to within four (56-52) on junior forward Gavin Rose’s 3-point sequence with 5:06 to play in the fourth.
“Obviously, anytime you’re ahead like that at halftime, it’s hard to kind of get out of the gate,” Braves coach Drew Glentzer said. “We had a lot of good looks in the second half that we missed, but defensively we were terrible to start the quarter.
“Our defense is what fed our offense early, and we didn’t do that in the second half. But (GC) is a team that is very dangerous. Against Connersville, they were down 15 and ahead by five in the same quarter.”
Once Greenfield-Central closed to within four points, the Braves responded with a 9-0 run to put the game away. Britt started it with a reverse layup to go along with another hoop, while Ferris made 5 of 6 at the free throw stripe to make it 65-52 with 1:56 showing.
The Braves made 17 of 28 field goal attempts in the first half to bolt to a 45-27 lead with Russell accounting for 15 of the points.
Four Indian Creek players scored early on as the hosts jumped to a 13-0 advantage to open the contest. A 12-0 scoring burst midway through the second period pushed the margin to 21 points, 34-13, the highest of the first half.
Greenfield-Central (0-6) didn’t help its own cause, committing 14 of its 23 turnovers before halftime. Undeterred, the Cougars staged its furious comeback to make the game interesting.
“That’s kind of the mark we’ve made as a team right now. Even whenever it’s ugly and things are going wrong, we’re a team that still fights,” Greenfield-Central coach Lukas Haworth said. “That’s why we give ourselves a chance to win.
“The sooner we figure out how to put that together for 32 minutes, the effort is going to turn into a result we want. Overall, I’m happy with how the guys kept fighting.”
Sam Hunt, the Cougars’ lone senior, led the way with 12 points. Scoring 11 apiece were junior guards Brady Mundell and Jacob Cochran.
The Braves get to enjoy a long holiday break as they don’t play again until hosting Brown County on Jan. 5.
