By Tom James
INDIANAPOLIS — Leave it to Jack Keefer’s Lawrence North squad to have perhaps its best three-point shooting night of the season in the Wildcats’ final regular season game.
By hitting seven-of-13 from beyond the three-point arc — and 19-of-36 shots overall — Keefer’s team rolled to a 58-44 Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference boys basketball win over Terre Haute North Friday night.
It was also the regular-season finale for the visiting Patriots, who were outscored 16-4 in the second quarter and committed five first-half turnovers. TH North trailed 35-22 at halftime and were never quite able to get over the hump in the second half.
Junior forward Ryan Taylor tossed in a game-high 15 points and had two blocked shots to pace the Lawrence North offense. Sophomore center Michael Chandler — all 6-foot-10 of him — added 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.
Senior guard Farooq Davis chipped in with 10 points, two assists and two steals for the Wildcats. Senior forward Perrin Ashley added a game-high nine rebounds.
For the visiting Patriots, junior guard Logan Shipley netted 14 points while senior forward Thomas Anderson had 10 points and three assists. Junior forward Justin Gant was limited to six points from the field, hitting just two-of-nine shots, and had a team-high five rebounds.
“I felt like our kids competed for the whole game,” Patriots coach Todd Woelfle said afterward. “I was very pleased with that. We played the whole 32 minutes. They gave their best effort. Lawrence North shot the ball from the three-point line extremely well.
“With their size and athleticism, for us to be successful we need them to miss a few of those [three-point shots]. We had to dig and help out inside on their big guy, Chandler, who’s a very good player. That was the difference. We went [6-of-23] from the 3-point line. We have good shooters. They’ll pop them and they’ll knock them down in the [state] tournament. But we just didn’t hit them [Friday] night.”
Woelfle said that the Patriots’ second-quarter scoring drought came because his team got caught standing a little bit.
“We did. [Lawrence North] started playing a 3-2 zone and we started standing too much and passed the ball around the perimeter,” he explained. “We stopped attacking [the basket] because of their size. I thought the second half we got back to doing what we wanted to do with our bigs. We played them inside-out. We got good looks in the second half. We just weren’t able to convert.
“We had an excellent regular season. I think we have a good basketball team. Now the only thing that matters to this group of guys is the next 32 minutes and have an opportunity to play another [tournament] game,” the Patriots coach said.
n Crean in attendance — Indiana University basketball coach Tom Crean watched most of Friday night’s game at Lawrence North.
Crean arrived a bit late, getting there late in the first quarter, but he stayed for the remainder of evening.
TH NORTH (44) — Jones 1-2 2-3 4, C.O’Leary 3-10 0-1 8, Shipley 5-13 0-0 14, Anderson 5-9 0-0 10, Gant 2-9 2-4 6, Bolden 0-0 0-0 0, Gauer 0-0 2-3 2, Marshall 0-0 0-0 0, M.O’Leary 0-0 0-0 0, Newton 0-0 0-0 0, Sponsler 0-5 0-0, Blank 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 16-48 FG, 6-11 FT, 44 TP.
LAWRENCE NORTH (58) — Davis 3-5 3-4 10, Taylor 5-9, 3-4 15, Chandler 5-10 3-5 13, Thomas 0-4 0-0 0, Ashley 3-5 0-0 8, Bibbs 1-1 0-0 2, Eri.Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Radford 0-0 0-0 0, Balls 0-0 2-2 2, Person 0-0 2-2 2, Ero.Harris 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 2-2 6, Totals 19-36 FG, 13-17 FT, 58 TP.
TH North 18 4 10 12 — 44
Lawrence North 19 16 6 17 — 58
3-point goals — TH North 6-23 (C.O’Leary 2-8, Shipley 4-11, Sponsler 0-4), Lawrence North 7-13 (Davis 1-3, Taylor 2-3, Thomas 0-1, Ashley 2-4, Williams 2-2). Total fouls — TH North 14, Lawrence North 9. Fouled out — none. Rebounds — TH North 26 (Gant 6), Lawrence North 30 (Ashley 9). Assists — TH North 12 (Jones 3, C.O’Leary 3, Anderson 3), Lawrence North 10 (Davis 2, Taylor 2, Chandler 2, Williams 2). Blocked shots — TH North 0, Lawrence North 5 (Chandler 3, Taylor 2). Steals — TH North 4 (C.O’Leary 2), Lawrence North 4 (Davis 2, Chandler 2). Turnovers — TH North 8, Lawrence North 11.
JV — Lawrence North 55 (Harris 18, Terrell 12), TH North 44 (M.O’Leary 12, Blank 11).
Next — TH North (16-6) opposes Plainfield in the Class 4A Plainfield sectional at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. Lawrence North (14-7) faces Indianapolis Cathedral in the second game of Class 4A Sectional 10 on Wednesday.
