BY MATT KOESTERS
CLARKSVILLE — In a low-scoring game featuring two aggressive defenses, the Clarksville boys’ basketball team was able to outlast Henryville, 40-35, to give the Clarksville High School crowd a happy ending on senior night.
The key play came with just 27 seconds left to play in the fourth quarter, as Clarksville junior guard Nathan Masters rebounded an errant shot by teammate Billy Edelen to keep Clarksville in possession of the ball with a slim three-point lead. Edelen was able to draw a foul, and drained both free throws to extend the Generals’ lead to five and put the game out of reach.
It may have been senior night for the Generals, but the majority of Clarksville’s points came from sophomore guard Edelen and freshman guard Aidan McEwen. Edelen and McEwen accounted for 20 of Clarksville’s 40 points.
Clarksville’s victory mirrored its season, with a sluggish start followed by a strong finish. Clarksville’s only points of the first quarter came with just 21 seconds left, a field goal by senior forward Jacob Carver. Clarksville head coach Scott Matthews attributed his team’s sluggish start to a lack of chemistry in the starting lineup; the Generals started the game with their four seniors, along with junior post player Cory Brown.
“I know we didn’t have many points but the score on the other side didn’t have many either, so as long as that’s the case, you don’t have to worry about it,” Matthews said. “But we started some different kids that hadn’t been used to playing together tonight, and then the second and third quarter, we started to use our bounce a little bit more against their 2-3 zone that was spread out.”
Henryville turned the ball over 20 times in the first 20 minutes of the game, helping the Generals get back into the game in the second quarter. Clarksville led by three at the half.
“I know people are going to talk about their defense tonight,” Henryville head coach Perry Hunter said. “We had 21 turnovers tonight and I don’t know how many of them were caused by their defense. I think most of them were unforced errors. We had a lot of jumps, a lot of walks, a lot of things we worked on. And I’m not taking anything away from them, but I think we controlled the game defensively, and we controlled the tempo. They’re way more athletic than we are, they’re bigger and stronger, and I think the name of the game is turnovers: in the first half, just way too many.”
Clarksville’s defense harassed the Hornets across the length of the court, using the press to force errors and bad shot selection from Henryville.
“What we tried to do is just not create any offense for them in the halfcourt, and then when we did make a field goal, we tried to guard them in the full court man to man, and see if we couldn’t speed them up a little bit and get them out of what they normally like to do,” Matthews said.
Henryville was able to stem the bleeding from the turnovers when sophomore guard Evan Embry took to the court about halfway through the third quarter. Henryville would go on to turn the ball over just once more for the rest of the game.
“It kind of changed the whole perspective, the whole flow of the game,” Hunter said.
While proud of his team’s defensive effort against the Generals, Hunter said the great effort made the loss all the more frustrating.
“I told our guys that if we can keep the score in the 50s that we’d give ourselves a shot to win,” Hunter said. “We kept it in the 30s and 40s. So I felt like we did everything tonight we needed to do except handle the ball a little better and win.”
The teams will start sectional play next week. Clarksville will take on Paoli on Wednesday in the first round of the Class 2A Sectional. Henryville will face off against New Washington on Wednesday during the opening night of the Class A Borden Sectional.
HENRYVILLE 7 8 12 8 – 35
CLARKSVILLE 2 16 9 13 – 40
Henryville (10-10) — Mayfield 15, Robertson 12, Weeks 3, Wolf 2, Everage 2, Gardner 1.
Clarksville (9-11) — Edelen 12, McEwen 8, Farney 5, Brown 4, Edelman 4, Masters 2, Combs 2, Carver 2, Rittman 1.
Three-point filed goals: Henryville 2 (Robertson 2); Clarksville 3 (Edelen 2, McEwen 1).
Rebounds: Henryville 25 (Mayfield 8); Clarksville 24 (Brown 6).
Turnovers: Henryville 21; Clarksville 15.
