Cougars take charge early in victory

For the Daily Journal

Greenwood Christian wasted little time in dispatching Central Christian, rolling to a 67-17 win in the opening round of its own Class A sectional Wednesday.

The final score doesn’t tell the full story of the Cougars’ dominance. GCA led opened the game on a 33-0 run, led 43-3 at the half and 53-5 midway through the third quarter before a sloppy final 12 minutes closed the game.

It was exactly the way Greenwood Christian coach Alan Weems was hoping the game would go — other than the fourth quarter.

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“We wanted to get this game under control early, but the one thing I didn’t want to be was sloppy at the end,” Weems said. “We have to finish and we can’t get sloppy. If we want to advance, we can’t play below our ability level.”

Like Tuesday’s sectional opener, which saw third-ranked Indianapolis Tindley roll over Indianapolis Lighthouse South 107-6, this game was over quickly.

Greenwood Christian (18-6) used its full-court press to withering effect in the game’s first eight minutes, turning Central over 17 times in the first quarter and building an easy 24-0 lead after one.

It didn’t take long for Weems to take his foot off the gas, but with only nine available players there was little that he could do to keep the game close.

“I wasn’t going to let it get out of hand. We weren’t going to do anything to embarrass anybody,” Weems said. “I felt like 15, 17 points was enough (to call off the press). We felt like at that time we had the game in control.”

Even without the press, Central Christian (1-21) could do little against the Cougars. The Chargers finally broke the opening run when Alexia Zepeda banged a 3-pointer high off the glass midway through the second, but GCA closed with 10 more points to lead by 40 at the half.

Greenwood Christian was firmly in control midway through the third, leading 53-5 before playing even with Central the rest of the way.

All nine Cougars scored in the game, led by Isabella Reed with 17 points, Sarah Mangan with 13 and Alexis Mead with 12.

Asia Vanrhoon led Central Christian with eight points.

Greenwood Christian will face Providence Cristo Rey in Friday’s second semifinal game. Tindley will face Indianapolis Lutheran in the other semifinal.