Steve Fields
The Tribune-Star
GREENCASTLE —
Free throws were the difference Tuesday night in Greencastle’s 57-53 victory over Northview in boys high school basketball at McAnally Center.
Northview outscored Greencastle 50-34 from the floor, but the Tiger Cubs hit 23 of 28 free throws to snap a six-game losing streak and win their third game of the season.
Northview was led by guards Craig Peters and Peter Tanoos with 10 points each.
Greencastle was led by Nick Gilliam with 15 points.
Northview jumped out to a 13-2 lead by taking advantage of the size advantage of 6-4 Christian Ellis, 6-5 Ethan Whitson and 6-6 Daniel Kimball over Greencastle’s 6-3 Gilliam and 6-3 Lane Winslow. The Knights passed the ball over the heads of the smaller Tiger Cubs.
“The most disappointing factor is that we did get the ball inside and unfortunately we didn’t have an opportunity to shoot as many free [throws] as they did,” Northview coach Clint Weddle said.
The Knights tried playing a faster pace game to beat Greencastle’s defense down court.
“When every time down the floor the other team gets to shoot a free throw, or your team gets a foul called on you, if you don’t make something happen in the front court, then you’re probably not going to have success in the backcourt. So we were trying to speed up the game because it was very obvious that’s the way the game was going to go for us,” Weddle said.
Northview got scoring from seven different players in the second quarter and still led 34-24 at halftime.
But in the third quarter, Greencastle outscored Northview 19-10 and took its first lead of the night, 41-40 with 2:18 left in the period. A basket by Tanoos gave the Knights a 44-43 lead going into the final eight minutes.
Northview built the lead back to five points, 48-43, on buckets by Peters and a steal and lay up by Tanoos to open the fourth period. Then Northview was called for its seventh foul with 6:38 left in the game and Greencastle went to the free throw line six times, hitting 10 of 11 attempts. Gilliam hit two free throws to tie the game 53-53 with 3:08 to play and hit another at 1:05 to put the Tiger Cubs on top to stay.
NORTHVIEW (53) — Ellis 3-8 0-0 8, Mace 4-7 0-0 8, Whitson 3-10 2-2 8, Ball 1-6 1-2 3, Peters 5-11 0-0 10, Hakman 2-5 0-0 4, Kimball 0-0 0-0 0, Tanoos 5-5 0-0 10, Clark 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 24-54 FG, 3-4 FT, 53 TP.
GREENCASTLE (57) — Winslow 2-8 2-2 6, Bollman 3-3 2-2 8, Gilliam 4-7 7-8 15, Christy 2-6 2-2 6, Mitchell 0-3 0-0 0, Gerard 3-9 1-4 8, Brotherton 1-2 6-6 8, Foxx 0-6 3-4 3, Coble 1-1 0-0 3, King 0-3 0-2 0. Totals 16-45 FG, 23-28 FT, 57 TP.
Northview 19 15 10 9 — 53
Greencastle 13 11 19 14 — 57
3-point shooting — N 2-10 (Ellis 2-3, Clark 0-1, Ball 0-2, Peters 0-4), G 2-13 (Coble 1-1, Gerard 1-3, King 0-2, Christy 0-3, Foxx 0-4). Total fouls — N 21, G 13. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls — none. Turnovers — N 13, G 16. Rebounds — N 28 (Ellis 5), G 39 (Gilliam 6). Steals: N 11 (Tanoos 3), G 10 (Winslow 3).
JV — Northview won 46-22.
Next — On Friday, Northview (7-13) will host Clay City and Greencastle (3-14) travels to Southmont.
