There was plenty of drama Saturday at the Johnson County boys basketball tournament — just not so much in the championship game.
After needing overtime to scrape its way past Indian Creek in an early afternoon semifinal, host Center Grove hit Franklin with an early avalanche and rolled to a 68-51 victory in the title tilt.
The Trojans (11-2) led by 18 after the first quarter and were up by as many as 26 before halftime. It appeared that the close call earlier in the day woke them up a bit.
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“When you play in the county tournament, you never know what’s going to happen,” Center Grove senior Nate McLain said. “Every team can play with you, so we just came out with a different intensity the second game, and it really helped us jump out to that early lead.”
McLain and classmate Joey Klaasen had it rolling from the opening tip against the Grizzly Cubs (7-5), combining for 13 points in the first 6:10 to stake Center Grove to a 19-4 edge. Spencer Piercefield added a 3-pointer just before the end of the first period to make it 22-4.
The Trojans stretched the margin to 37-11 just before halftime and had a 54-28 advantage late in the third quarter before the Grizzly Cubs put together a closing surge, getting as close as 11 before running out of time.
“I was just really proud of our focus,” Center Grove coach Zach Hahn said. “Playing two games in one day is never easy, especially when you play an overtime game in the morning. This was a big day for our program.”
Trayce Jackson-Davis finished the nightcap with 16 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots. McLain added 15 points, Klaasen 14 and Ben Nicoson 11. Franklin got 14 points from Cory Richards, 10 from Blaine Wentzell and nine from Reece Thomson.
The Trojans got all they could handle earlier in the day against the Braves, trailing by as many as eight in the third quarter before clawing back for a 67-59 overtime win.
Indian Creek, which led for most of the game and never trailed by more than two in regulation, had a chance to go up by one late in the fourth when Jared DeHart — who finished with a game-high 26 points — went to the line with 11.1 seconds left. DeHart made the first free throw to tie it at 50-50 but missed the second, and Center Grove was able to extend the game and pull away in the extra period.
Klaasen paced the Trojans with 20 points in the semifinal, while Jackson-Davis had 17 and Piercefield had 14.
Franklin’s early game against Greenwood was also tight throughout.
Down by five with 1:12 left, the Woodmen got within two on a Jeffrey Reynolds 3 and had a chance to tie in the closing seconds, but a traveling call with one second left allowed the Grizzly Cubs to escape with a 52-50 triumph.
Reece Thomson had 21 for Franklin, while Cory Richards and Drew Byerly added 12 and 11, respectively. Eric Moenkhaus was the lone scorer in double figures for Greenwood with 19.
Despite coming up on the short end against Center Grove, Franklin coach Brad Dickey was happy with what he saw from his young team Saturday.
“We’re still seeing kids doing things for the first time in their lives,” he said. “Some of the moves that Drew Byerly makes, Cody Mahler was really good there, Nate Sellers converted a couple of shots. We hadn’t seen those guys do that, because they hadn’t. But now they have.”
Center Grove, meanwhile, celebrated a championship that proved a bit more difficult to lock up than most expected.
“I didn’t think it would feel as good as it does now,” Klaasen said, “because I thought it would be easy — but it wasn’t. So it feels great.”
