For The Tribune
Henryville went on a 12-0 run the latter part of the first quarter, and first minute of the second period, and made that lead stand up for the rest of the game to roll to a 67-42 win against Trinity Lutheran in the Bollinger Athletic Complex Saturday night.
Cougars coach Brian Stuckwisch said Henryville (12-2) was simply too strong for his team.
“They’re a very good ball club. They’ve only been beat twice this year,” Stuckwisch said. “They like a fast pace, up tempo. I think the first half we played very good defense and we kept tempo at our pace the way we wanted it.”
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Trinity (3-9) got off to a good start as Sam Marksberry hit a jump shot in the opening minute of play and Colton Wischmeier added two free throws for a 4-0 lead at 5:42.
The Cougars then watched the rest of their attempts in the first quarter bounce off the rim, and that allowed Henryville to score 10 straight points to lead 10-4 on a basket by Nick Walker with 1:31 on the clock.
After Henryville took a 12-4 lead early in the second period, Marksberry finally made Trinity’s second basket of the game at 7:10. Wischmeier added a jumper at 6:30, and Chad Stuckwisch drained a 3-pointer with three minutes left in the half.
Andrew House hit a 3-pointer in each of the first two periods, Thomas Green made two baskets in the second period, and Walker scored five points in the second to spark the Hornets to a 22-11 lead at the half.
“I think in the first half our offense was running very well as far as the plays we were running,” Stuckwisch said. “We just didn’t make the shots. We only scored 11 points, and we had several open shots that were missed.”
Both teams picked up the pace in the third period with Trinity matching Henryville’s 20 points.
Stuckwisch had the hot hand for the Cougars with two 3-pointers and 10 points in the quarter, while Kade Badger made two 3-pointers for the Hornets.
That left the visitors with a 42-31 lead going into the final period.
Coach Stuckwisch said he felt his team was within striking distance at 48-36 with six minutes remaining until the Hornets went on an 11-0 run to put the game out of reach.
“In the second half the tempo kind of went to their favor,” he said. “We had a little bit of foul trouble and our defense was not as good as the first half. They got a little bit of a lead, a little momentum going their way, and we never did recover from that once it started.”
Walker and Green topped the Hornets in scoring with 17 points each.
Wischmeier and Stuckwisch topped the Cougars in scoring with 14 points each.
Stuckwisch said the Cougars need to do a better job in their half-court offense heading into Friday’s home game against Shawe Memorial.
“I think we need to control the game more in our favor,” he said. “We’re not a fast-running team and we want to slow it down.”
He said if the Cougars can control the pace of play, reduce the turnovers and hit their shots, they can reach the .500 mark.