RICHWOOD – It was a span of 13 minutes, 22 seconds that decided the fate of the Centerburg boys basketball team.
Host North Union held the Trojans to just three free throws over that time span and rolled to a 60-45 victory in the second round of the Division III district tournament on Saturday, Feb. 27.
The normally sharp-shooting Trojans just couldn’t find their stroke. The Wildcats held Centerburg scoreless in the second quarter until a pair of Colton Martin free throws with 38.8 seconds left in the half finally ended a drought that lasted just over a quarter. By that point, North Union held an insurmountable 31-9 lead.
“Honestly, I think it was little bit of our boys’ mindset,” Centerburg coach John Marhefka said. “We didn’t shoot like we wanted to shoot. If that happens, it slows you down. We got a little tentative, we got shell-shocked a little bit and then that momentum rolled and we just couldn’t get out of that.”
The goal was to hold Centerburg’s leading scorer Carter Jones to less than 20 points. He finished with 19 and 10 rebounds, with 15 points coming in the second half.
“He’s a really good player; he’s obviously their best player,” North Union coach Brian Terrill said. “We were trying to make him earn his points. Otherwise, it’s easy to give up 30 on a kid like that. Our primary goal was to keep him under 20. If he scores 30, they have a chance to win. We just wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.”
Jones bookended the long drought from the field with a 3 in the first quarter and a basket in the third with 3:48 remaining that pulled the Trojans within 36-14.
Any interior pass to Jones was met with two or three Wildcat defenders. Any 3-point attempt was met with a hand in the face.
Meanwhile, Zach Vernon scored nine of his 19 points in the first quarter to stake the Wilcats (18-3) to a 14-9 lead. Preston Crabtree took over in the second quarter, scoring eight of his 18 points.
Vernon had five rebounds; and Crabtree had four rebounds, three assists and two steals for fourth-seeded North Union.
“We’ve been getting better at exerting our will at the beginning of the game and being relentless,” Terrill said. “I thought our zone was effective. (Centerburg is) a really good shooting team. It’s a little unorthodox to run a zone against a good shooting team. But it worked, so we stuck with it.”
Centerburg ended up winning the second half, scoring 23 points in the fourth quarter alone after being held to 22 over the first three.
“In the second half, our defensive effort got a little bit better — just not enough when you’re in that big of a hole,” Marhefka said.
Martin finished with nine points, three steals and a pair of blocks; Levi Houck added six points, three assists and three boards; and Mckinnon Mead dished out five assists and added three rebounds and three steals for the Trojans (16-4).
Trevyn Feasel had eight points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals; and Hudson Davis had eight rebounds and three steals for the Wildcats, who will host 11th-seeded Liberty Union in a district semifinal on Tuesday night.
“We knew it was going to be a battle,” Marhefka said. “We knew it was going to be which team executed their game plan. Gotta give it to North Union. Right now, they’re playing off of last year. They’re well-coached and their players made plays.”
