Batesville Herald Tribune

 

Gary Dudgeon

Despite a spirited comeback led by Purdue University recruit D.J. Byrd, Greensburg was able to hold off North Montgomery for a 62-57 win in the Class 3A regional championship game at Shelby-ville High School.

The victory earned the Pirates a trip to the Seymour Semistate as one of only four team remaining in the Class 3A portion of the IHSAA basketball tournament.

Byrd’s charge was offset by a brilliant performance from the free throw line by Latroi Wright who connected on 12-of-13 in the final 4:58 minutes of the game.

In the early going of the final stanza, Byrd scored two baskets around a pair of free throws by Kal Airey to cut what had been an eight-point lead to two at the 5:01 mark. The second shot was an exclamation point dunk that charged up the sea of orange that inhabited the east side of William L Garrett Gymnasium.

After tipping the ball away from a Pirate ball handler, the two athletes sprinted to the Chargers’ end of the court. The Pirate won the race and Byrd went skidding out of bounds. When the ball returned to the Pirates’ end, Byrd was unable to get back on defense but Clay Pierce got the steal and a long pass found a waiting Byrd resulting in a thunderous slam.

The Pirates quickly went on the attack and Wright was fouled on a drive to the basket.

As he did 11 other times during the day, Wright dropped both shots through the twine to push the margin back to four points and ignite a 9-1 run to give Greensburg a 51-41 lead before Andrew Dougan made the first of two free throws with 1:49 to go.

From that point on, the Chargers’ game plan was simple. Foul quickly and give Byrd the ball.

Byrd scored two long balls and missed the free throw on a potential three-point play. He corralled the rebound and stuck it back in the hole but the basket was disallowed because of his foul lane violation.

A quick foul, which netted Greensburg no points, set up Byrd’s second triple at the 26-second mark to make it a one-possession game at 57-54.

Wright was immediately fouled and, after a missed shot, Greg Dougan was swarmed by a trio of Chargers to earn two free throws and a 61-56 lead. Airey and Ty Miller each scored free throws in the final 10 seconds for the final 62-57 count.

“It feels great,” said Coach Stacy Meyer. “That was a big offensive charge but we were able to make enough free throws to hold on. D.J. Byrd is a great player. ”

After trading four 3-point baskets in the first 3:12 minutes, the Pirates took the lead on Greg Dougan’s shot inside off a feed from Wright at the 4:06 mark. Wright followed with a triple and a basket to give the Pirates a 13-6 lead with 2:46 to go in the first period.

After that run, the Pirates would never be stopped except for a brief tie with 1:37 to go in the half. After Byrd’s feed to Airey, Elijah Harter responded with one of his three triples in the game and Miller rebounded his own miss with four seconds to go in the half.

Although Byrd scored 13 points in the final period, including eight in the final 1:18 minutes, he was essentially held in check before that point.

 

Down 10 points, North Montgomery designed sets to get him the long shot. Prior to that the combination of Harter and Andrew Dougan had forced the Chargers’ star to work for every shot.

“(Harter and Dougan) do a good job of taking the opposing team’s best player out of his game,” Meyer said. “Although he scored 26 points, he got 13 in the final period. I thought we made him work for his points.”

Another key to the win was rebounding.

“In both games, we did a good job of blocking out and keeping them off the glass,” Meyer said.

Wright also scored 26 points to lead a trio of Pirates in double figures. Greg Dougan matched his first-game total of 14 points and Harter finished with 11.