FLOYDS KNOBS — Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice?

Friday night at Columbus East, the Floyd Central boys’ basketball team saw the hosts have a perfect shooting fourth quarter en route to an Olympian win.

Saturday night in Floyds Knobs, the Highlanders watched Providence make all six of its third-period field goals, four of them 3-pointers, as the Pioneers turned a two-point halftime deficit into a 57-39 victory rout.

Providence senior guard David Schellenberger led all scorers with 24 points, including four 3s. The win was Providence’s fourth straight.

“That was a tremendous win for our team,” Pioneers’ head coach Lou Lefevre said. “We have not played a team with as many inside and outside weapons as they have. I think that team is going to win double-figure games this year.”

Early on, it was all Highlanders.

A Buddy McAfee three-point play gave his team an 8-0 lead with 5:05 left in the first quarter, forcing a Providence timeout. The Pioneers (5-1) did not score until a Schellenberger triple at the 3:16 mark in the first.

The Highlanders (1-4) led 15-8 at the beginning of the second frame, then their starting front-court tandem of Jeffrey Thompson and McAfee went to the bench with two fouls each. The Pioneers proceeded to churn out a 7-0 run, tying the game at 15 with 5:09 left in the first half.

“That just changed the complexion of the game for us,” Floyd head coach Randy Gianfagna said. “You have to adjust and we didn’t adjust very well.”

The Highlanders led 24-22 at intermission behind the McAfee and Ryan Adam show. The two seniors combined for 22 of their team’s 24 points.

“We had a good run early and just didn’t sustain it. We got in some foul trouble obviously,” Gianfagna said.

Floyd shot 53 percent in the first half while holding Providence to 30 percent.

“We were just playing Adam like he was any old player. We let him catch the ball pretty easily the first three times. If he gets an open look, he’s putting it down,” Lefevre said. “After that, he didn’t have a chance to shoot it without a hand in his face. Dave Schellenberger was on him good, and when he wants to be he can be as good defensively as any guard around. He was tremendous on both ends of the court.”

Freshman A.J. Schmidt converted a three-point play to start the third period, giving the Pioneers their first lead of the game at 25-24. Schmidt scored eight of his 12 points in the third.

“A.J. was tremendous for us tonight, and Michael Griffith was fantastic for us off the bench,” Lefevre said.

Providence did not miss in the third as it outscored Floyd 17-7 in the stanza and led 39-31 going to the final eight minutes.

“We talked about the first three minutes of the third quarter and how important that was,” Gianfagna said. “We get blown by on the wing, then Jeffrey picks up his fourth foul, then we turn it over and they hit a 3. So that’s six points in two possessions.”

A McAfee bucket pulled the home team to within six early in the final quarter, but that would be as close as the Highlanders would get. Providence converted on 16-of-22 fourth-period free throws to cruise to its fifth win of the season.

“You just don’t want to be behind them in the fourth quarter,” Gianfagna said. “They pulled it out when they got the lead. They have five ballhandlers and (Lefevre) does a nice job. We needed to move the ball a bit more and make them work more on defense and we just didn’t do it,”

The Pioneers outrebounded Floyd 13-3 in the second half and held the green and gold to 33 percent second-half shooting.

“Tonight is the first time I’ve seen us start out bad and turn things around and by the end of the night really be outplaying the other team for the balance of the game,” Lefevre said. “We were so bad a few weeks ago so for us to be so good for most of this game, that was nice to see.”

Providence will face Clarksville in the opener of the Silver Creek Holiday Tournament on Monday, Dec. 29. Floyd will begin play in the Louisville Moore Tournament on Friday, Jan. 2.



PROVIDENCE  8 14 17 18—57

FLOYD CENTRAL 15  9  7  8—39

Providence (5-1) — Coots 16, A.J. Schmidt 12, Very 2, J. Koetter 1, Boone 0, N. Koetter 0, Schellenberger 24, Griffith 2, Wethington 2.

Floyd Central (1-4) — Adam 13, Mitchell 2, Codey 2, McAfee 16, Allen 2, Crone 2, Jeffries 2, Verhoff 0.

Three-point field goals — Providence 9 (Coots 4, A.J. Schmidt, Schellenberger 4); Floyd Central 2 (Adam 2).

Rebounds — Providence 22, Floyd Central 18.

Turnovers — Providence 10, Floyd Central 16.

JUNIOR VARSITY: Floyd Central 42 (12-9-12-9) — Veroff 6, Jeffries 4, Neihoff 9, Peters 1, Sturgeon 0, Crone 2, Jenney 2, Naville 0, Knight 18; Providence 37 (17-4-10-6) — B. Schmidt 5, A.J. Schmidt 6, R. Schmidt 5, Very 0, Dixon 13, Ferree 2, Wethington 5, Knecht 1, Boone 0, Griffith 0.