By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star
Plainfield — The home team did its best Terre Haute North imitation in the first quarter of Tuesday’s opener in the Class 4A Plainfield Sectional, using a physical defense to frustrate the Patriots and take a 10-6 lead after eight minutes.
Beginning the second quarter, North senior Chris O’Leary set the tone with a hard drive and a steal to start an 8-0 run for the sectional favorites. Justin Gant and Thomas Anderson followed up with baskets on a huge night for the North big men, and the Patriots pulled away for a 50-33 victory over Plainfield.
Gant and Anderson combined for 30 points, Gant finishing with 18 and eight rebounds.
“The point guards took the pressure well and got the ball where it needed to be,” Gant said. “We started out taking a lot of quick shots, and we didn’t crash the boards hard enough.”
In the second first-round matchup, Mooresville led Terre Haute South much of the first quarter behind the perfect shooting of junior guard Devin Harris, but the Braves’ Jacob Tanoos delivered one of his three 3-pointers to give the Braves the lead for good. South pulled away from a 3-18 Mooresville team to win 60-39 and earn a semifinal matchup with Northview.
With Mooresville’s defense focused on face guarding John Michael Jarvis, a 17 point-per-game scorer, the rest of the Braves played their game. Six-foot-6 center Ike Worrell played distributor in the post, hitting Jarvis on a back-door cut with a bounce pass for one of three layups for the senior guard. Worrell also found the open shooters on the perimeter.
The Braves hit 6 out of 16 of their 3-pointers in the first half, getting contributions from Bryn Schwartz, Tanoos and Jermaine Smith, who came off the bench and drilled three.
“Basically what they tried to do was take away our big three,” South coach Mike Saylor said. “Jermaine and Tanoos were big. Between the three guys that play those two positions, they hit seven 3s, so that really helps you. … Great team win for us.”
That above-mentioned trio knocked down 7 for 15 from 3, while South’s “big three” of Jarvis, Anthony McGill and Worrell combined to go 1 for 12 from beyond the arc.
Worrell though had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds to go with a game-high five assists and two blocks. Worrell had six offensive boards and “owned the glass,” Saylor said.
“The other players came through tonight,” said Jarvis. “That was good. Ike came to play tonight, and when they doubled he found the shooters. That’s what we need to do, team play.”
While South survived the hot shooting of Harris, who had 14 of the Pioneers 20 points in the first half, and pulled away for the victory, North still had a battle on its hands heading into the final quarter.
Gant used the dribble to set up Anderson for a 3-point play with 3:24 to go in the third. Anderson’s free throw put the Patriots ahead 32-22, but Plainfield answered with five straight points.
Then Gant, who had finished off two old-fashioned 3-point plays already, almost got a third with three seconds left in the third quarter, but the versatile 6-8 junior missed the free throw.
O’Leary started another quarter off right for the Patriots, drilling a 3-pointer off a two-man game with Gant that put North ahead 38-27. Chase Jones, who had a team-high four assists, picked up a steal and hit two free throws to put North up 40-27.
Jones penetrated the lane and found Andrew Gauer for a layup to cap a 10-0 run that sealed the game for North (17-6).
North did a nice job of matching the Quakers’ intensity after going scoreless for almost four minutes in the opening quarter.
“[Being physical] was [the Quakers’] gameplan. I was proud of the way our kids handled that. It was a real physical game, it got chippy at times,” North coach Todd Woelfle said. “I thought we did a much better job in the second half. Once we settled down and we started running our stuff, things went much better for us.”
The Patriots had their usual strong defensive effort, holding Plainfield to 31.3 percent from the field. Gauer contributed four rebounds and a steal, and Logan Shipley made three steals before fouling out.
“I thought we defended for 32 minutes. It allows us to stay in games when we aren’t scoring,” Woelfle said.
The Patriots will play Martinsville (4-16) on Friday.
South will meet up with Northview (7-14). The Braves won a regular-season matchup at home, 48-42.
“They played us really tough. Northview’s had a rough year, but they’ve got a great coach in Ernie Maesch. We cannot take those guys lightly. A wounded animal is a dangerous animal so we respect them tremendously.”
Terre Haute North 50
Player fg 3pt ft reb s pf tp
Gant 7-11 0-0 4-6 9 0 1 18
Anderson 5-11 0-1 2-2 4 1 1 12
Shipley 1-2 1-2 0-0 3 3 5 3
O’Leary 2-4 1-2 4-6 1 1 3 9
Jones 0-2 0-0 5-6 4 2 1 5
Gauer 1-2 0-0 0-0 4 1 1 2
Bolden 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Sponsler 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Totals 16-34 2-5 16-22 23 9 13 50
Plainfield 33
Player fg 3pt ft reb s pf tp
Walker 2-8 0-2 1-1 4 1 1 5
Smith 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 1 3 0
Page 1-8 1-2 5-6 6 0 3 10
Hanna 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 4 2
Cox 2-8 1-4 0-0 1 0 4 5
Johnson 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 2 2
Wheeler 1-2 1-1 0-0 2 0 1 3
Jones 2-2 0-0 2-2 0 0 1 6
Spencer 0-1 0-0 0-2 2 0 0 0
Brackney 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 10-32 3-9 8-11 *19 3 19 33
Terre Haute North 6 16 13 15 — 50
Plainfield 10 7 10 6 — 33
FG Pct. — THN .470, P .313. 3Pt. Pct. — THN .400, P .333. FT Pct. — .727. Assists — THN 11 (Jones 4, Shipley 3), P 2 (Walker, Page). Turnovers — THN 11, P 14. Blocked shots — THN 6 (Gant 2, Anderson 2, Gauer, Bolden), P 2 (Walker 2).
Next – Terre Haute North (17-6) plays Friday against Martinsville in the semifinals of the Class 4A Plainfield Sectional. Plainfield finishes its season 7-15.
Mooresville 39
Player fg 3pt ft reb s pf tp
Johnson 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 3
Myrick 2-5 1-1 2-4 4 0 1 7
Viles 0-4 0-4 0-0 0 0 0 0
Harris 5-10 4-6 0-0 6 0 2 14
Smalling 1-3 0-0 1-2 3 2 3 3
McKinley 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 2
Kenney 2-3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 4
Brock 3-4 0-0 0-0 7 0 1 6
Fields 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0 2 0
Mowery 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 15-35 6-16 3-6 *23 0 9 39
Terre Haute South 60
Player fg 3pt ft reb s pf tp
Jarvis 3-8 0-4 2-2 2 1 0 8
McGill 2-6 0-3 1-2 6 2 1 5
Schwartz 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 2 1 3
Worrell 5-11 1-5 0-0 12 1 0 11
Tanoos 4-9 3-8 0-0 2 1 2 11
Ulrich 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 0 0 3
McKenna 1-2 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 2
Turner 1-1 0-0 1-1 1 0 0 3
Weishaupt 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 3
Smith 3-5 3-5 2-2 1 2 1 11
Etling 0-1 0-1 0-0 4 0 0 0
Totals 22-50 10-34 6-7 *33 9 5 60
Mooresville 14 6 6 13 — 39
Terre Haute South 15 18 14 13 — 60
FG Pct. – M .429, THS .440. 3Pt. Pct. – M .375, THS .294. FT Pct. – M .500, THS .857. Assists — M 8 (Viles 3), THS 14 (Worrell 5). Blocks – M 0, THS 4 (Worrell 2, McGill, Jarvis). Turnovers – M 16, THS 6.
Next – Terre Haute South (13-10) plays Friday against Northview in the semifinals of the Class 4A Plainfield Sectional. Mooresville finishes its season 3-18.
