By Todd Golden
Evansville — Imposing defensive will and owning the rebounding advantage is nice no matter where the calendar happens to be.
That Terre Haute North boys basketball team was able to claim both as keys in its season-opening 53-38 victory over Evansville Central on Wednesday makes the Patriots feel good about where they stand for the rest of the season.
“Our defensive effort for the entire 32 minutes was excellent. Except for about for about four or five possessions, I think we were pretty solid,” North coach Todd Woelfle said. “I can’t single out one guy, it was total team defense. [Assistant] Coach [Michael] Menser has done a great job with our guys on the defensive end, especially on the scout.”
The Bears never had a quarter where they scored more than 11 points.
And while the Bears weren’t far off the Patriots from the field (North had a 44-43 advantage in field-goal percentage), the Patriots showed discipline in a physical game on its defensive end as Central only went to the line 11 times ... and made just four. Conversely, North was 15 of 23 at the line.
The bigger Patriots (1-0) expected to control the boards, but a 31-14 advantage is beyond any team’s wildest dreams.
Gant led North with 15 points and eight rebounds. Thomas Anderson added 13 points and six rebounds. Ross Sponsler had six rebounds off the bench as North’s guards crashed the boards too.
“We were bigger, but the important thing for us was that our guards were pursuing the basketball. We sent four guys to the offensive glass and I thought we did a good job,” Woelfle said.
Central (0-1) took an 8-4 lead, but Thomas Anderson fueled North’s response. After North had tied it on an Anderson layup and a Logan Shipley bucket, Anderson converted a three-point play to put the Patriots in front 11-8. Anderson scored nine of North’s first 11 points.
Anderson’s three-point play was the flashpoint of an 11-0 run that put North in front by double digits in the first quarter. Chase Jones and Ross Sponsler hit 3-pointers at the end of the rally to put North in front 17-8.
But it was the zero in the run that meant more to North than the points they scored as the defense demoralized the Bears.
“When we get a couple of defensive stops in a row, it gets us fired up on the offensive and defensive ends. It makes us go after the ball harder,” Gant said.
In the second quarter, North got sloppy with its ballhandling on the perimeter, allowing the Bears to trim their deficit to 19-16. North quickly cleaned up its ballhandling act, upped the ante in its half-court defense and rode a pair of Justin Gant buckets to go back ahead by seven. The Patriots led by that margin at halftime when Sponsler hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to make it 23-16.
Turnovers troubled North again in the third quarter — the Patriots had five — and the Bears cut their deficit to 31-28. Once again, North responded, this time with a 7-0 run. The biggest play during the run was Anderson’s rebound of an Andrew Gauer free throw miss. He kicked it to Chris O’Leary who made a 3-pointer to give North a lift.
North maintained its gap in the fourth and broke the Bears’ back with a game-ending 8-0 run.
Two Missouri Valley Conference coaches — Evansville coach Marty Simmons and Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery — were both at Central to get a look at Gant.
Terre Haute North 53
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Jones 2-3 1-1 4-4 1 2 3 9
O’Leary 2-4 1-2 2-5 1 1 0 7
Shipley 1-4 0-1 0-0 1 1 3 2
Anderson 4-5 0-0 5-8 6 0 3 13
Gant 6-16 0-1 3-4 8 0 2 15
Gauer 0-1 0-1 1-2 4 0 3 1
Sponsler 2-4 2-3 0-0 6 1 2 6
Marshall 0-1 0-1 0-0 2 1 0 0
Newton 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 17-38 4-10 15-23 31* 6 16 53
Evansville Central 38
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Barker 2-3 1-1 1-4 1 2 5 5
Ahlbrand 3-9 2-6 2-3 2 0 4 10
Nellis 1-1 1-1 0-0 1 0 4 3
Ferguson 4-8 2-4 1-3 4 0 2 11
Marvel 2-5 0-2 0-0 3 1 5 4
Strong 1-5 0-3 0-0 1 0 1 2
Carwille 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Smith 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 0
Bomkamp 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Sullivan 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Wuerth 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 14-32 6-17 4-11 14* 4 20 38
TH North 17 9 12 15 — 53
Ev. Central 10 9 11 8 — 38
FG Pct. — THN .447, EC 437; 3P Pct. — THN .400, EC .353; FT Pct. — THN .652, EC .364. Blocks — THN 1 (Gant), EC 2 (Barker 2). Turnovers — THN 12, EC 12. Team rebounds* — THN 2, EC 2.
JV — TH North 35 (Blank 15, Kalen 7), Evansville Central 25
Next — TH North (1-0) will play host to Northview on Dec. 4.
