Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star
Martinsville —
North Central’s players were not overly concerned with the fact that Saturday’s 80-64 victory against Indianapolis Lutheran was the school’s first ever victory in IHSAA regional round.
The veteran Thunderbirds were ready to get focused on the next opponent, Edinburgh, a 61-60 winner in overtime against Shawe Memorial in the John R. Wooden Gymnasium.
North Central won their fourth sectional title in school history last week, and went for a first regional title Saturday night.
“This is definitely our first. It’s our second regional [appearance] in four years, but we’re definitely not satisfied. Our goal is to go as far as we can,” said senior point guard Bobby Swaby, one of five Thunderbirds to score in double figures.
Jordan Stefancik led the way with 23 points, three short of his career-high of 26. The 6-foot guard slashed to the bucket through the Saints’ defense multiple times, getting acrobatic more than once.
“It’s definitely the biggest game of my career to be able to do it at regionals in front of everybody,” Stefancik said.
Swaby helped ignite the Thunderbirds to a 10-2 run to start the second half, driving for a layup and then stealing the ensuing in-bounds pass and dropping a bounce bass to Tyler Howkinson, who knocked down a pair of free throws for two of his 16 points. Swaby knocked down two more free throws, and Stefancik added two at the charity stripe to cap the spurt that put North Central ahead 47-38 with 3:22 to go in the third quarter.
The Thunderbirds answered a run by Lutheran late in the quarter with a steal and layup by Ethan Stanifer and a steal and near dunk by Stefancik to make it a 12-point game heading into the fourth quarter.
Swaby, Stefancik and Stanifer, who scored 13 — including a momentous 28-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer of the first half — led an outstanding effort in taking care of the basketball for North Central. The Thunderbirds had just five turnovers in the game and forced 18.
North Central also shot 53.3 percent. The T-Birds showed last week they could grind it out in a defensive battle, topping Shakamak 36-35 in the sectional championship.
On Saturday afternoon, they enjoyed getting up and down the court and knocking down shots inside and out.
“When we played Shakamak, we had to play defense and shut them down. Tonight, we were able to hit shots so we had to extend the lead and get things going,” Stefancik said.
Post men Corbin Rehmel and Howkinson were a combined 9 for 9 from the field, with Rehmel chipping in 10 points and eight rebounds.
And the two big guys did all they could against Lutheran’s stocky post men, although 6-4 Griffin Ford had 19 points and 14 rebounds and 6-3 Andy Denecke finished with 21 points.
“[Rehmel] was about the same size as them height wise but they had a lot of weight on him,” Kamman said in praise of his thin 6-4 senior. “They did [produce some points], but we made it tough on them. They got 15 second-chance points, we need to do a better job there.”
Stefancik was impressed by the NC big men’s ability to find open space and convert.
“We knew coming into the game we had to have big play from the big guys, just rebounding mainly, but to be able to hit every shot they take that also helps us out offensively,” he said.
Stanifer and Swaby also played smart after picking up two fouls in the first quarter. Kamman never took them off the court. Then both picked up a third foul early in the third quarter.
“We weren’t sending them to the bench then either, “ Kamman said.
“They know how to play smart basketball when they get two fouls.”
North Central held Lutheran’s backcourt under wraps and forced a lot of miscues.
“Bobby and Ethan don’t always impress you with their quickness, but they are really good on-the-ball defenders,” Kamman said. “Those two did a really good job of shutting those guys down, and I think our offense really fed off our defense.”
Five players in double-figure scoring always makes it tough to gameplan for a team, Kamman hoped going into the night game.
“Our balance is what makes it difficult for teams to guard us. They’ve got to be ready to defend against five guys. Hopefully, Edinburgh will have the same trouble,” Kamman said.
