Down by five midway through the second quarter and again three early in the third, Greensburg stormed back the last 12 minutes of their semi final Regional game Thursday night at Coldwater to defeat Fowler 45-32 and move on to Saturday night’s final to face host South Central. Central downed Bucklin by 18 in the later game.
After leading 9-4 early the Rangers were outscored 12-2 as Fowler claimed a 16-11 lead, only to recover for a 17-16 half time edge. They later found themselves down 20-17 when Fowler hit the first two shots of the third quarter.
Once Andrew Seiler hit a three at 3:30 of the third—GHS’s only triple of the night—to put his team up 26-20, however, Dave White’s team never looked back, eventually going on a 15-0 run to claim a 32-20 advantage by the end of the period. White credited the offensive spurt to having turned to the third offensive set of the night.
“We went later in the second half to having our guards penetrate more, especially once number five (Chad Lundeen) got in a little foul trouble,” he said. “It worked well and got us some easy buckets.”
Greensburg, in fact, shot a blistering 61.9 percent from the field the second half (13-21) after hitting only 37.5 percent (6-16) the first 16 minutes.
Having a particularly memorable game defensively was 6-4 post Dave Cesmat who finished with his first double-double of the season, grabbing 10 rebounds to go with 12 points and four blocked shots, two of which came within three seconds of one another.
“You can’t ask for much more of a defender than you get in Dave,” White said later. “He’ll bother your shot if he doesn’t block it and he’s athletic enough to go get it when there’s a loose ball. And the second half he did a good job finishing offensively also.”
Loose balls, in fact, were an exercise in frustration for GHS in the first half, the Rangers knocking balls loose several times only to lose the handle out of bounds or back into Goldbugs’ hands. While Greensburg turned the ball over 12 times the first half, Fowler had 13 turnovers in the same stretch.
“We should’ve been up six to eight instead of one at the half,” White said, “because of how many times we’d steal the ball but couldn’t hang on to it.”
Playing for the first time since his January 15 injury at Meade, junior forward Shane Engelken played over half the game, ending the night with three boards and four points. While White acknowledged his team was a little uneven in adjusting to Engelken’s reappearance on the floor, he seemed pleased overall with the added depth offered by number 23.
“It’s nice to have a big body back in there to have some extra fouls to give when someone like Cesmat gets a couple,” White said. “It’s nice to have him (Engelken) back.”
While White said he was mildly surprised Central easily defeated Bucklin in the later game, he said Bucklin’s approach to defending standout shooter Trae Beck was a root cause.
“There’s a reason he (Beck) had 29,” White said. “They just played him man the whole time and he’ll kill you if he gets hot when you do that.”
Greensburg was able to contain Beck to 15 in regulation in their overtime win at Coldwater February 4, largely on the strength of zoning Central and doubling up on Beck whenever he touched the ball, in addition to sometimes trapping him. White said he’d likely take the same approach Saturday night.
“The key to beating Central is to get a lead on them,” White said. “If you don’t they like to go four corners on you and delay and force you to be patient defensively.
“We had a lead on them last time and still had to go to overtime. They’re a dangerous team.”
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Down by five midway through the second quarter and again three early in the third, Greensburg stormed back the last 12 minutes of their semi final Regional game Thursday night at Coldwater to defeat Fowler 45-32 and move on to Saturday night’s final to face host South Central. Central downed Bucklin by 18 in the later game.
After leading 9-4 early the Rangers were outscored 12-2 as Fowler claimed a 16-11 lead, only to recover for a 17-16 half time edge. They later found themselves down 20-17 when Fowler hit the first two shots of the third quarter.
Once Andrew Seiler hit a three at 3:30 of the third—GHS’s only triple of the night—to put his team up 26-20, however, Dave White’s team never looked back, eventually going on a 15-0 run to claim a 32-20 advantage by the end of the period. White credited the offensive spurt to having turned to the third offensive set of the night.
“We went later in the second half to having our guards penetrate more, especially once number five (Chad Lundeen) got in a little foul trouble,” he said. “It worked well and got us some easy buckets.”
Greensburg, in fact, shot a blistering 61.9 percent from the field the second half (13-21) after hitting only 37.5 percent (6-16) the first 16 minutes.
Having a particularly memorable game defensively was 6-4 post Dave Cesmat who finished with his first double-double of the season, grabbing 10 rebounds to go with 12 points and four blocked shots, two of which came within three seconds of one another.
“You can’t ask for much more of a defender than you get in Dave,” White said later. “He’ll bother your shot if he doesn’t block it and he’s athletic enough to go get it when there’s a loose ball. And the second half he did a good job finishing offensively also.”
Loose balls, in fact, were an exercise in frustration for GHS in the first half, the Rangers knocking balls loose several times only to lose the handle out of bounds or back into Goldbugs’ hands. While Greensburg turned the ball over 12 times the first half, Fowler had 13 turnovers in the same stretch.
“We should’ve been up six to eight instead of one at the half,” White said, “because of how many times we’d steal the ball but couldn’t hang on to it.”
Playing for the first time since his January 15 injury at Meade, junior forward Shane Engelken played over half the game, ending the night with three boards and four points. While White acknowledged his team was a little uneven in adjusting to Engelken’s reappearance on the floor, he seemed pleased overall with the added depth offered by number 23.
“It’s nice to have a big body back in there to have some extra fouls to give when someone like Cesmat gets a couple,” White said. “It’s nice to have him (Engelken) back.”
While White said he was mildly surprised Central easily defeated Bucklin in the later game, he said Bucklin’s approach to defending standout shooter Trae Beck was a root cause.
“There’s a reason he (Beck) had 29,” White said. “They just played him man the whole time and he’ll kill you if he gets hot when you do that.”
Greensburg was able to contain Beck to 15 in regulation in their overtime win at Coldwater February 4, largely on the strength of zoning Central and doubling up on Beck whenever he touched the ball, in addition to sometimes trapping him. White said he’d likely take the same approach Saturday night.
“The key to beating Central is to get a lead on them,” White said. “If you don’t they like to go four corners on you and delay and force you to be patient defensively.
“We had a lead on them last time and still had to go to overtime. They’re a dangerous team.”
