GREENFIELD - Staring at a possible overtime in the face, the No. 1 Carrollton Hawks were reeling.
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The Hawks had just been called for a five-second violation for not inbounding the ball with 15.5 seconds to play with a three-point lead, and gave the No. 7 Greenfield-Northwestern Tigers a golden opportunity.
However, the Hawks knew where the ball was going.
“We were making sure they didn’t get a four and it was pretty easy to play defense in that situation,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said.
Tyler Woods made three triples in the second half and was poised to answer the bell to tie the game.
But, Tyler Frye never let Woods get enough space and forced him to take an off-balanced, long three-pointer, which hit off the back of the rim and out.
“We were going to switch everything and make sure Woods didn’t get a three, but he got one anyway,” Krumwiede said. “I thought it was a pretty tough shot.”
Carrollton exhaled as they held on to beat their rivals 44-41 in the IHSA Class 1A Greenfield semifinals on Wednesday night.
Carrollton faces Franklin (Coop), a combination of Franklin and Waverly players, at 7 tonight at Greenfield for the regional championship. The winner advances to the North Greene Sectional. The game will be televised live on RiverBender.com.
“We had to play lock-down defense on Woods because he’s a good shooter,” Cole Brannan said. “If he would’ve been wide open he would’ve made it, but we locked him down and he didn’t make it.”
Woods led all scorers with 17 points and followed by Connor Shade who had 11.
Carrollton (22-7) had a more balanced scoring spread with Jerrett Smith leading the attack at 10 points and Luke Gillingham adding nine.
Brannan scored six points for the Hawks, but they were all in the fourth quarter and each one was immense down the stretch.
Four of his points were jump shots from the top of the key and the other two were free throws with 23.1 left to give the Hawks a 44-39 lead, which proved to be the difference.
“I was just kind of in the moment,” Brannan said. “I make that shot quite a bit in practice, it’s kind of my shot, Krumwiede pulled me aside and said step up for your team, so I tried to score.”
The game was tight throughout as neither side led by more than three possessions.
Carrollton took a 4-0 lead, but the Tigers (13-14) marched back with a 5-0 run and the two teams were locked at 11 apiece going into the second quarter.
Jeremy Watson scored eight points in the first quarter, but he didn’t score again.
The Hawks took a 21-19 lead into the locker rooms at halftime, but Woods gave the Tigers the lead again with two straight long-rang triples to make it 27-25 in the third quarter.
Gillingham tied it up at 29 with a buzzer beater.
Smith scored five straight points of the fourth quarter to push the Hawks run to 7-0 and give them a 34-29 lead, but Shade answered back with a bucket and an and-one to level the score at 34.
A key push for the Hawks came with under four minutes to go as they went on a 6-0 run and gave them the biggest lead of the game at 40-34.
Carrollton couldn’t put Greenfield away at the foul line, which made for an exciting conclusion to the game.
“I thought we played fairly well, we missed a lot shots, but that’s our story,”Krumwiede said. “You still have to look at the total outcome and we held them to 41 points and you have to feel good about that.”
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