Often it’s a good sign when 10 different players score for a high school basketball team.
That wasn’t the case for Center Grove on Wednesday night.
Trojans coach Zach Hahn went to the bench liberally with his team struggling in a 66-45 home loss to Franklin Central in nonconference action.
“When you are losing by 15 or 20, you’ve got to try something different,” said Hahn, whose Trojans record dropped to 6-10.
“You try to get guys in there that are going to do what you want to do. I don’t think we executed very well our game plan. Part of it was is Franklin Central did what they do better than we did what we do.”
The Flashes (11-3) led 19-11 after the first quarter and 34-20 at halftime.
“Franklin Central did a great job of finding their best guys getting shots,” Hahn said. “We turned the ball over a couple of times too many in the first half, and they got some leak-out layups and the lead got extended pretty early.
“We tried to keep fighting and scrapping back, but they’ve got good players that made plays.”
Flashes coach John Rockey said his team’s length seemed to hurt the Trojans.
“We had some guys longer, and we had a lot of deflections,” Rockey said. “Any time you are getting deflections, you are playing pretty good defense.”
The Flashes start two 6-foot-6 forwards in Antyone Jackson and Grant Pedigo along with 6-3 guard Marcus Burk.
Hahn agreed the Flashes’ size might have hurt a little bit.
“They got a couple of blocked shots early on,” Hahn said. “They’re just a scrappy, defensive team. I don’t think our team responded very well to their aggressiveness. I thought our last group in the fourth quarter did a nice job of matching their intensity.
“Early on their length bothered us, and we turned the ball over and gave them some easy layups and easy shots, and it’s hard to win when you do that.”
Rockey was pleased how his team responded in snapping a two-game losing streak.
“We clamped down and played a lot better defensively,” Rockey said. “When we play defense, we have a lot of fun playing offense. It leads to fast breaks and open shots. When we’re playing defense, we’re playing at our best.”
Burk was high scorer for the Flashes with 20 points, hitting three 3-pointers. Burk, a senior, went over the 1,000-point mark for his career during the game.
“He’s been a heck of a shooter for us,” Rockey said.
Senior guard Jimmy Weinke added 15 points for the Flashes.
Freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis and sophomore Noah Gillard each had seven points for the Trojans. Gillard scored all his points in the fourth quarter. The Trojans struggled from the free-throw line as well, making just half of their 16 attempts.
Center Grove will play at Lawrence North (11-5) in a Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference game Friday night.
“They’re one of the top 10 teams in the state,” Hahn said. “They’re naming the gym after coach (Jack) Keefer, so it will be packed. We can’t hang our heads. We’ve got to get better (today) and come ready to go on Friday.”
The Wildcats were ranked No. 11 in the most recent Class 4A media poll and 12th in Indiana Basketball Coaches Association poll (all classes).
