In those down-to-the-wire games come state tournament time, style points won’t count for anything.
What will count is making winning plays when the game is on the line, and the Center Grove boys did just that on Tuesday night to hang on for a 41-38 victory over Mooresville in the West Gym.
Though it might not have been the sexiest win of the season for the Trojans (14-7), coach Zach Hahn was pleased with what he saw from his team in crunch time.
"At the end of the day, when it mattered, we got two stops, Spencer made free throws, and these are all things I haven’t seen us do in the last three or four weeks," Hahn said. "This is showing me growth, whether people believe it or not. This is growth as a program, and it’s a positive thing.Â
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"Anytime you can walk away with a win, it’s a positive thing."
The Trojans appeared to be taking control of the game when they went up 32-24 with 3:26 left in the third quarter on back-to-back lobs from Spencer Piercefield to Trayce Jackson-Davis. But the Pioneers (13-7) clawed their way back, eventually regaining the lead, 36-35, on a pair of Jon Eineman free throws with 6:01 to go in the game.
Ben Nicoson put Center Grove back on top with two foul shots, but Luke Fowler responded in kind at the other end with 5:19 remaining. Mooresville didn’t score again, however, and Justin DeGraaf’s go-ahead layup at the 4:50 mark held up as the winning bucket.
A Fowler jumper missed the mark with 6.4 seconds on the clock, and Piercefield then hit two free throws to make it a three-point game. Eineman’s halfcourt heave at the final buzzer came tantalizingly close but rattled around the rim and out.
Points were hard to come by for much of the night.
After inching out to an early 14-9 lead, Center Grove hit a snag offensively, making just one field goal over the final 11 and a half minutes of the half. The Pioneers weren’t able to take full advantage, going scoreless for the final 4:15 of the second quarter themselves, but the visitors still went into the locker room with a 20-19 edge.
"We got wide-open shots; we just weren’t knocking them down," said Jackson-Davis, who led the Trojans with 17 points and eight rebounds. "We hold a team under 40 points, we’re usually going to win, but our offense was just really sluggish. … We’ve just got to score the ball."
Piercefield had eight points, Nicoson seven and DeGraaf six for Center Grove. Fowler and Eineman had 16 and 12, respectively, to lead the Pioneers in defeat.
Center Grove plays at North Central on Friday.
