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CARROLLTON - When asked if he could remember the last time North Greene had taken down the Carrollton Hawks in their gym, Spartans head coach Brett Berry thought about it for a moment, but concluded with an “I don’t know.”

One reason why is because in his 12 years as head coach Berry hadn’t accomplished that feat until last night.

“Last year we beat them, but years before that we could not get them, so it feels pretty good,” Josh Hopper said.

The North Greene Spartans got out to a 31-8 lead in the first half as they defeated their rivals from the south 62-50. The Spartans improve to 13-3 and 5-1 in the WIVC, while Carrollton falls to 4-9 and 1-3 in conference play.

“Our kids came out and played really well early. They looked sharp right off the bat, executed our game plan, played tough,” Berry said.

The Spartans had a balanced scoring outlet. Despite playing roughly half of the game due to foul trouble, Jonah Hopper still put in a game-high 15 points. Josh Hopper finished with 14. Brett Whicker and Justin Lawson each tallied ten points with point guard Blake Dean adding seven.

“Blake Dean and Brett Whicker are playing at a higher level now. They’re getting better and better since the [Winchester] Tournament,” Berry said. They really turn things on and create so many things for other people. They both play at great speeds.”
With Dean and Whicker forcing turnovers, Josh Hopper patrolled the boards and has played noticeably better since 2018 began according to Berry.

“Josh Hopper is getting better and better since the beginning of the season. He’s turned a corner and had a great Winchester Tournament. Tonight, he stepped up and did everything we needed him to do.”

“I’m starting to go a lot harder because I’m concentrating on making the team better like getting rebounds for outlets and the points just come,” Hopper said.

The Spartans led the entire way and never seemed to give Carrollton a chance to win from the tip-off if not that then it was some self-inflicting wounds from the Hawks.

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“You can’t dig yourself a hole against one of the favorites in the WIVC. They went on a 15-0 run, and we just went away from the offense and what they want to do, which is shoot threes. [It’s] great when you’re making them, but when they’re not falling that’s not a way to get back in the game,” Carrollton head coach Matt Goetten said.

Carrollton trailed 7-0 until Goetten called a timeout in hope to settle things down, but it would keep getting worse for the Hawks even when they received what looked like a lifeline.

Jonah Hopper, one of the best hoopers in the Riverbender area, picked up two fouls within the first three minutes. If that happened at the start of the season then perhaps the Spartans would be in trouble, but fortunately for them, players like Dean, Lawson, and Whicker among others had improved their games and could manage without their star.

“It doesn’t really bother us that much because a lot of our players can score. When [Jonah’s] out I don’t get jittery about it. We can go without him, but it’s good if we have him.” said Josh about his brother.

North Greene went on an 8-2 run to end the first quarter and started out the second on a 12-3 run that included five straight layups from Lawson, Dean, Whicker, Dean again, and Colin VanMeter.

Carrollton never rolled over and died and would go on to outscore the Spartans after it got to 31-8 the rest of the way.

Gabe Jones scored Carrollton’s first six points of the third quarter. He would finish with 11 for the game to lead the Hawks in scoring. Jonah Hopper answered with two straight buckets and soon after Dean added a three-pointer to give the Spartans biggest lead of the game at 48-25.
But Carrollton would show some life.

Ethan Brannan nailed back-to-back field goals, including a three, which was followed by buckets from Kyle Waters and Nathan Walker. After a score by Whicker, Waters closed out the third quarter with a mid-range basket to cap an 11-2 run by the Hawks and trailed 50-34. He tallied eight points in the game for the Hawks, and sophomore Jacob Graner came off the bench and scored a season-high seven points.

“We went back into the game plan, and things started going our way. That’s a really good North Greene team,” Goetten said. “I’m not taking anything away from them, but I felt like if we came out with the energy, we had in the second half than the first half it would’ve been a different game.”

The Hawks trimmed the deficit to 52-37 early in the fourth quarter, and just slightly there were whispers of a comeback, but the Spartans were having none of it.

“Late in the game we had a lull and guys started to take a little breath, and we had some guys [who had] not seen a lot of action and wanted to try and get into the game,” Berry said.

North Greene put together a 6-0 run, which pretty much put the game to rest midway through the fourth quarter, but Carrollton did put together a late 9-2 run.

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