BY CHRIS STONER
sports@newsandtribune.com
CORYDON — Charlestown led by three points after three quarters Wednesday night in the first round of the Class 3A Corydon Sectional. But then the Pirates went stone cold in the fourth quarter and saw their season end at the hands of North Harrison, 53-46.
“In this 10-game stretch where we haven’t won any games, we’ve had stretches where we just weren’t able to score,” Pirates’ head coach Sean Smith said. “We’ve had a hard time knocking down some perimeter shots consistently, so everybody’s been able to sag in on us and that’s what they did to us.”
Charlestown (7-14) missed its first nine shots of the fourth quarter and didn’t score in the period until a Kyle Hayes bucket with 1:27 left.
“We couldn’t knock down shots, couldn’t get any transition going, and they stepped up and knocked down some shots,” Smith said. “We weren’t getting any stops on defense. That took away our transition points.”
The Pirates started the game hot as Hayes and Steven Coyne hit back-to-back 3s for an early 6-0 lead. The Cougars didn’t grab their first advantage until 11-10 late in the first frame and led 15-14 heading into the second.
Trailing 17-14 with 6:31 left until intermission, Smith called a timeout that nearly changed the game. Out of the break, Charlestown outscored North 11-1 over the next 6:08 and led 25-18 with 23 seconds remaining in the second period.
Then the Pirates ship sank.
In less than half a minute, the Cougars (7-14) notched a breakaway layup and two triples, one a 35-foot banked-in buzzer-beater, and led 26-25 at halftime.
“That quarter was good, but then we gave it away in the last 30 seconds of the half. That’s probably where we lost the game,” Smith said. “We could have went in the locker room up seven.”
The Pirates dominated the second-quarter statistics. They forced six North turnovers, held the Cougars to 33 percent shooting and hit 7-of-8 free throws.
“I didn’t change a lot in the second quarter,” Smith said. “We got some transition buckets and got some stops. We picked up our aggressiveness. We were able to press a little bit and get them in a fast-paced game. Then that last 22 seconds of the half just killed us. At this level, you can’t be so generous in giving away leads.”
Charlestown found itself down 38-33 with 2:24 left in the third. But another Smith timeout sparked an 8-0 Pirates spurt to end the period and the Clark County school led 41-38 heading into the fourth.
The Pirates hit 7-of-10 third-period shots en route to reclaiming the lead.
“We did come back in the third and got the lead going into the fourth and that showed a lot. But we then threw that away,” Smith said. “We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot in the games we’ve been in lately. We’ve just made a lot of silly decisions. We get a lead and then get careless with the ball or take a bad shot. It’s frustrating.”
Charlestown was just 2-of-11 from the floor and 1-of-6 from the foul line in the final stanza, as it finished the season with a 10-game losing streak.
“We didn’t get to the free-throw line until late and then didn’t make them,” Smith said. “It’s a mental thing. I kept telling the guys going into the fourth quarter to just finish this game. The regular-season game with them was similar to tonight. We missed six or eight free throws late and they took the lead from us with about 20 seconds to go and we gave that game away. That was our game to win and so was tonight’s.”
CLASS 3A CORYDON SECTIONAL
FIRST ROUND
NORTH HARRISON 15 11 12 15—53
CHARLESTOWN 14 11 16 5—46
North Harrison (7-14) — Janes 2, Book 3, Southard 11, Jones 12, Bolin 20, other players 5.
Charlestown (7-14) — Hayes 15, Coyne 3, Thompson 5, Daniel 4, Poteet 4, Wilson 11, Hall 4.
3-point field goals — North Harrison 6 (Bolin 3, Jones 2, Southard); Charlestown 3 (Hayes 2, Coyne).
Rebounds — North Harrison 29, Charlestown 19.
Turnovers — North Harrison 15, Charlestown 9.
