TERRE HAUTE — Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but when Terre Haute North went into the fourth quarter of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference high school basketball game at Indianapolis North Central with just one turnover …
You’re right. You haven’t heard that one before, and an eventual 57-49 victory Friday night for the host Panthers wasn’t much of a damper on the Patriots’ play.
Although North Central did force but one turnover in the first three quarters, the Panthers were playing plenty of defense. They made the Patriots miss shots early, which gave the home team a lead it never relinquished, and blocked shots in the middle of the game when the visitors were threatening to make runs at the lead.
But North’s ability to run its offense against that kind of defense, plus maybe the best games of the season by Cory Hemmings and Justin Gant, kept the Patriots in the game until the end and made coach Jim Jones a reasonably happy man afterward.
“I think we got a little tired [at the end],” Jones said after the game. “But being able to compete against that caliber of competition is really encouraging ... and some kids played better than they had been playing.”
“Jim’s team did what Jim’s teams do,” coach Doug Mitchell of the Panthers said. “I know they’ve been working very hard at not turning the ball over.
“But I thought our defense stayed patient,” Mitchell continued. “I was very pleased with our effort.”
The differences in the game were mostly physical ones. North Central made a few first-half plays on the basis of pure quickness that enabled the Panthers to stay ahead, and the size advantage the home team had made the rebounding a one-sided proposition for the first three quarters.
North was still in the game early, trailing just 8-5, when the Panthers went on a 6-0 run to go up by nine. The third basket was one example of that quickness: guard Evan Gordon — you may be familiar with his older brother Eric — stole the ball from a Patriot, sped around him and outran him to the basket (while dribbling) for a layup.
North’s first big comeback attempt came early in the second quarter. A 3-pointer by Chris O’Leary followed by rebound baskets by Thomas Anderson and Gant cut a nine-point lead to 17-15, but then the Panthers got three more quick baskets. On the second of those, sophomore guard Terone Johnson shot over a Patriot, then flashed past him to rebound his own miss for a layup. On the third, reserve guard Eric Nicholas grabbed a defensive rebound on one baseline and went coast-to-coast for a layup at the other end, passing all five Patriots along the way.
But the Patriots were never deterred. They started shooting a little better in the second and third quarters — they’d have been well above 50 percent in those quarters except for six blocked shots by the Panthers — and came back from a 30-19 deficit late in the second quarter to cut the lead to five points three times in the third period.
The second of those rallies was particularly frustrating. North had cut the lead to 39-34 but twice had shots that could have cut the lead to two or three points. Neither went down.
“We missed some crucial shots,” Jones noted later.
Two more times in the fourth quarter the lead was cut to five points, at 43-38 and 47-42. The latter score came when Hemmings stole the ball, missed a layup under pressure, and Zach Harrison rebounded misses twice to finally get the basket.
But the Patriots had started making turnovers in the fourth quarter too, and those few mistakes proved costly. After the Panthers got an inside basket to go up by seven, a turnover led to the basket that put the home team ahead by nine. And when North had to press, the Panthers were able to throw over it for a dunk by 6-foot-9 Chris Toler that made the score 53-42.
Even that rally didn’t break the Patriots’ will, but the Panthers — who missed seven of their first eight free throws — hit four in a row down the stretch.
Gant, despite playing with a bout of bronchitis, led the Patriots with 13 points — 11 in the first half — while Harrison scored all 12 of his in the last two quarters. Anderson had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Hemmings had six assists.
Johnson had 15 points, Toler 13 and James Hollowell 10 for the Panthers, with Gordon handing out seven assists.
“Solid,” Mitchell said in assessing his team’s play. “I thought we played extremely solid.”
“[The Panthers’] athleticism and size [were the difference],” Jones said. “Our spirit was good, especially [in dealing with] the physical play.
“I thought we really competed,” the North coach concluded. “We never were really out of it.
Terre Haute North 49
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Gant 6-9 0-0 1-2 4 0 1 13
Harrison 5-11 2-7 0-0 3 0 1 12
Anderson 5-14 0-1 1-2 8 1 1 11
Garvin 1-7 1-4 0-0 2 0 3 3
Hemmings 2-5 0-0 0-0 2 2 3 4
O'Leary 2-3 2-3 0-0 0 0 2 6
Gauer 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 0
Totals 21-49 5-15 2-4 *23 3 13 49
Indianapolis North Central 57
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Hollowell 4-5 0-0 2-4 5 0 1 10
Ellison 2-7 0-1 0-0 1 2 1 4
Toler 6-8 0-0 1-4 8 1 2 13
Gordon 2-3 0-1 0-0 4 1 0 4
Johnson 7-12 1-2 0-0 3 0 1 15
Corley 1-5 0-4 0-0 2 1 0 2
Reid 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 2
McFall 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Ahlfeld 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
Nicholas 2-2 1-1 0-0 2 0 0 5
Totals 25-44 2-9 5-12 *33 5 6 57
Terre Haute North 8 14 14 13 — 49
Indianapolis North Central 16 14 11 16 — 57
FG Pct. — THN .429, INC .568. 3-pt FG Pct. — THN .333, INC .222. FT Pct. — THN .500, INC .417. (*) Includes team rebounds — THN 2, INC 5. Turnovers — THN 6, INC 8. Assists — THN 14 (Hemmings 6), INC 17 (Gordon 7). Blocks — THN 1 (Anderson), INC 7 (Toler 2, Hollowell 2).
JV — Indianapolis North Central 50 (Zack Barrett 14), Terre Haute North 30 (Logan Shipley 14).
Next — Terre Haute North (8-8, 1-3 in Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference) has a home game tonight against Evansville Reitz. Indianapolis North Central (11-5, 3-2) has a home game tonight against Pike.
High School
North plays ball control but falls to North Central
- High School
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Shining Knights: Northview tops both TH teams for title
A high school baseball game that had been tense all the way through reached angina-producing heights at the end Monday night, as Northview ended Terre Haute South’s sectional championship run by a single run and a fraction of an inch.
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Miners beat 2A newcomer for 3rd straight title
Linton and North Central were both defending high school baseball sectional champions, but the Thunderbirds’ move up to Class 2A did not go as they expected.
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South hangs on after scary moment in sectional semis
Terre Haute South’s bid for a sixth consecutive high school baseball sectional championship took a scary turn Monday afternoon.
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PREP/METRO ROUNDUP: Turkey Run rolls to title
Turkey Run routed North Vermillion 15-2 to capture the Class A Rockville Sectional championship for high school baseball Monday night.
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Eaton’s pair of long balls put Linton in title game
Linton blasted its way into the championship game of its hometown Class 2A high school baseball sectional as No. 9 hitter Beau Eaton cranked a pair of home runs to left field, and starting pitcher Tanner Butler capped Linton's scoring with a grand slam.
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It’s a rivalry-filled Memorial Day for sectional contenders
Longtime rivalries figure to determine high school baseball sectional champions throughout the Wabash Valley today, with semifinal and final games scheduled at four sites and a stand-alone championship game at a fifth.
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South tops Oldenburg to win tennis semistate
There was no evidence of rally caps, rally towels and certainly no rally squirrels, but Terre Haute South’s No. 1 singles player Maddie Kesler needed a rally in the worst way.
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New route leads to same place for South girls tennis
For so many years, the road to the IHSAA girls tennis state finals for local teams ran through Vincennes (regional) and Jasper (semistate). In other words, south and more south.
This year, their trip was re-routed through Greencastle (regional) and Center Grove (semistate). So it cnahged to east and more east. -
PREP ROUNDUP: Robinson tops Greenville in sectional semifinal
Robinson jumped to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, then cruised to a convincing 12-3 victory over Greenville in a IHSA Class 2A Vandalia sectional semifinal game on Thursday.
Ashlyn Sullivan was 2 for 3 with a double, home run and three RBIs to lead the winning Maroons. -
West Vigo baseball falls in sectional to Owen Valley
West Vigo overcame the odds to win 20 high school baseball games this season with a lineup that often included four freshmen and few seniors.
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South Vermillion softball's late-season surge comes to end
A late-season surge by South Vermillion wasn’t quite enough to halt a high school softball sectional winning streak by the host team Thursday night, as Edgewood got on top early and held on for a 5-2 win in the championship game of the Class 3A Edgewood Sectional.
The loss was just the second in the last 12 games for the Wildcats. The Mustangs, however, haven’t lost a sectional softball game for eight years in a row. -
South takes second, North third at boys track regional
Terre Haute South finished second and Terre Haute North third on Thursday night at the boys track and field regional at Evansville Central, with 11 individuals and three relay teams qualifying for the state finals June 2.
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PREP ROUNDUP: White River Valley baseball holds off Eminence
Three Eminence errors in the top of the sixth inning finally enabled White River Valley to score in high school baseball Thursday night, and the Wolverines went on to a 5-0 win in Class A Shakamak Sectional action.
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Feeling cursed: South bitten in sectional final again
Terre Haute South softball is not even close to being as cursed as a certain northside baseball team in Chicago, but it might just seem like it.
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PREP ROUNDUP: Mundy, Porter, Knight individual regional winners
Chanli Mundy and Keirra Porter of Terre Haute North were among the individual winners in the IHSAA Evansville Central girls track and field regional that ended late Tuesday night.
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Thornton puts away South Vermillion
Cody Thornton’s three-run blast over the left-field fence was the finishing touch to West Vigo’s 10-3 victory over South Vermillion in the opening game of the Class 3A Greencastle Sectional on Wednesday.
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Lakers triumph, go home for regional
Shakamak took Class A Clay City Sectional honors in high school softball for the first time since 2009 Wednesday, defeating White River Valley 9-5 in the title tilt.
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North Vermillion avenges losses
North Vermillion avenged two high school softball losses during the regular season to win the Class A Riverton Parke Sectional championship Wednesday with a 3-2 triumph over the host Panthers.
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Pats, Knights will meet in sectional
Adler Ingalsbe pooh-poohed his lack of velocity Wednesday night, yet the Terre Haute North pitcher was throwing BBs in the first game compared to Mooresville’s Brandon Topie in the nightcap.
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South outbattles Northview to reach sectional final
Even the best of high school softball pitchers can’t keep all the batters in the middle of Terre Haute South’s lineup down.
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Panthers get 20th win in sectional
Riverton Parke will face North Vermillion in the Class A softball sectional championship at Riverton Parke today, with action commencing at 6 p.m.
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Plainfield Sectional all about parity
Considering Terre Haute South has won five consecutive Class 4A sectional titles in high school baseball, naming the Braves as favorites to capture the 2012 Class 4A Plainfield Sectional would not seem far-fetched.
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PREP ROUNDUP: North Vermillion in title game
Casey West had a triple and three runs scored to help North Vermillion softball advance to the championship game of the Class A Riverton Parke Sectional on Tuesday.
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North takes second in track regional
Terre Haute North finished second with 74 points, six behind team champion Evansville Reitz, during the Evansville Central girls track and field regional that ended late Tuesday night.
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Wildcats advance to sectional softball final; West Vigo falls
Patience, patience.
South Vermillion exhibited great patience, being very selective at the plate and it paid off royally in the fourth inning. -
South, Crawfordsville win in regional tennis semis
Terre Haute South outlasted Fountain Central 4-1 in the first round of the girls high school tennis regional Tuesday, advancing the Braves into today’s championship match against Crawfordsville.
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Braves, Knights open with wins
It was an excellent night for starting softball pitchers to help their own cause Monday night in the Class 4A Northview Sectional.
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Lough dreamt about McMillan
A two-time state finalist in wrestling and a two-time all-Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference football player and wrestler, Tsali Lough of Terre Haute South was named the male recipient of the 2012 McMillan Award on Monday night at South’s Senior Awards Night.
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PREP ROUNDUP: Panthers cruise in sectional opener
Sarah Burnham pitched a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in high school softball Monday evening as host Riverton Parke defeated defending champion Rockville 10-0 in opening-round action at the Class A Riverton Parke Sectional.
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Notable tradition bodes well for Riverton Parke
Located practically in the shadow of a high school that sets one state standard in track and field, Riverton Parke has a tendency to be overlooked in that sport.
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