North Montgomery entered the Class 3A IHSAA Sectional at Crawfordsville with an upset in mind, but nothing was stopping Greencastle’s firepower in a 57-30 Tiger Cubs win to send the Chargers home, and propel Greencastle to the sectional final against Crawfordsville. The Tiger Cubs push their season record to 20-4, behind a 13-of-25 night from behind the arc, including eight first half 3-pointers.
“That first half was huge, because we gave them some good looks, and we know they’re a good shooting team,” North Montgomery first-year coach Andrew Evertts said. “You can defend them well and they’re still going to hit a lot of three’s, and we gave them some confidence early on.” A Nick Sutherlin triple put Greencastle on the board first at the 7:19 mark, and they never looked back. The Tiger Cubs led 12-3 after one period, and Benton Parmley hit three straight 3-pointers in the second half to push the lead to 30-11. Parmley knocked down five treys and tied for a team-high with 15 points. North Montgomery (5-18) hung tight with Greencastle for more than three quarters, before falling 58-43, in their regular season meeting at Greencastle last Friday, but the Chargers were unable to carry the confidence into the state tournament. “There were a lot of things we did bad there early on,” Evertts said. “We knew if we wanted to beat a team as good as they are we knew we had to make a run early on and prove that we can compete early on and we did that last Friday, but tonight was a different story.” The Chargers woes continued in the third quarter, only scoring two points on a pair of Preston Shaw free throws at the 2:20 mark. The Chargers’ leading scorer was held to just four points, while battling a foot injury. Greencastle was able to push their lead to as many as 35 points at 48-13 by the end of the third quarter. Jaron Bradford led North Montgomery with seven points, as the Chargers connected on just 11-of-39 shots from the field in the season-ending loss. Sutherlin added another 15 for Greencastle, as the Tiger Cubs were 19-of-36 from the field. Evertts feels like the Chargers made strides all season, even if it didn’t result in a high number of wins. “It didn’t show up in the win column, but I thought they laid the foundation for what we want to do,” he said. North Montgomery will graduate seniors Conner Cain, Daniel Fritzen, Matt Jackman, and Jacob Verduin, four guys Evertts felt like helped make a huge impact on and off the floor. “I’m so proud of those guys and what they’ve done for us this year,” he said. “And I know a lot of what they probably did, didn’t show up in the box score, but those guys worked their butts off everyday, they bought in, and they were great leaders for us.” Greencastle will play Crawfordsville tonight at 7:30 p.m. for the sectional title, after Crawfordsville defeated Western Boone 52-43 in the other semi-final game. The Tiger Cubs already own a 67-55 win over the Athenians back in November. Greencastle 57, North Montgomery 30 Greencastle 12 18 18 9 — 57 North Montgomery 3 8 2 17 — 30 Greencastle (20-4): Brody Whitaker 2 0-0 6, Benton Parmley 5 0-0 15, Evan Cummings 1 0-1 3, Andrew York 0 0-0 0, Evan Alexander 1 0-0 3, Nick Sutherlin 5 2-2 15, Ethan Maier 0 0-1 0, Conner Taylor 1 0-0 3, Gavin Bollman 2 0-2 4, Trent Ross 0 0-0 0, Cade Plew 3 2-3 8, Trey Wood 0 0-0 0; Totals 19-36 3-9 57 North Montgomery (5-18): Jaron Bradford 3 0-0 7, Matt Jackman 1 0-0 3, Daniel Fritzen 1 0-0 2, Kade Kobel 1 0-1 2, Preston Shaw 1 2-2 4, Alex Wallace 1 0-0 2, Jacob Verduin 0 0-0 0, Kai Warren 0 0-0 0, Zack Searle 0 0-0 0, Jack Thompson 1 1-2 3, Kiefer Carmean 1 1-2 3, Conner Cain 1 2-2 4; Totals 11-39 5-10 30 3-Point Shooting: Greencastle 13-25 (Parmley 5, Sutherlin 3, Whitaker 2, Cummings, Alexander, Taylor), North Montgomery 2-13 (Bradford, Jackman). Rebounds: Greencastle 30, North Montgomery 21