Indian Creek boys basketball coach Drew Glentzer couldn’t help but think his team threw its chances to win Friday night’s game away.
Glentzer blamed a lack of focus for the Braves squandering a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter in a 43-41 loss to Greencastle in the Western Indiana Conference third-place game.
Greencastle erased the Braves’ edge with an 11-0 run to take a 39-35 lead with 2-plus minutes left. Braves senior guard Jared DeHart cut the deficit to 39-38 with a 3-pointer before the Tiger Cubs went back ahead 42-38, hitting three of four free throws. Junior guard Zach Pugh sank a 3-pointer to slice it to 42-41 with 5 seconds left, and the Braves had a final chance after Greencastle senior Colin York hit the second of two free throws with 4 seconds left, but they threw the ball away.
“We didn’t value possessions very well,” Glentzer said. “We had a good run, but as hard as we worked to get ahead we gave it all back with turnovers and poor play in transition. We had four turnovers with two-on-one fast breaks with no one on us that we got nothing out of. I was disappointed with our lack of awareness.”
Greencastle was patient on offense and led 18-16 at halftime. The Braves took the lead at 33-28 with a 17-10 third-quarter edge.
“It was a grind of a game,” Glentzer said. “Once we got that seven-point lead, I felt we lost our focus. I was really disappointed with how we handled the last five minutes of the game.”
The Braves finished with 13 turnovers, many of those unforced in the fourth quarter.
“We’re throwing it to a guy to shoot a layup and we threw it over his head or we threw it out of bounds or we mishandled it,” Glentzer said. “Pretty much anything you can say happened.”
Glentzer said the Braves have to learn something from the loss.
“Hopefully, going forward our kids understand what you have to do to win a game like that,” he said.
Indian Creek missed its only free throw attempt. The Tiger Cubs were 6 of 8 from the line.
York was high for Greencastle with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. Gavin Bollman added 10 points and freshman Benton Parmley hit thee 3-pointers for nine points for the Tiger Cubs.
“We had a hard time guarding them in the halfcourt,” Glentzer said. “They were able to dictate the pace. We couldn’t speed the game up and get it the way we liked.”
DeHart scored 17 for the Braves, including three 3-pointers. Pugh was next with six points, hitting two 3s.
“We played with a sense of urgency the last 2 minutes, but that was a little too little too late,” Glentzer said.
