BEARDSTOWN - For the second year in a row, the North Greene Spartans are the Beardstown Tournament champions.
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They defeated the Calhoun Warriors 62-59 in Beardstown on Saturday night. This is the third time this season the Spartans have beaten the Warriors.
“The kids played outstanding. It was a challenge and adversity all the way. We played Thursday, Friday, and Saturday against solid opponents,” North Greene head coach Brett Barry said. “I’m proud of the boys. It wasn’t easy and [not] everything clicked, but it was good for us because we need to work through that.”
North Greene won all four games beating Rushville-Industry 54-50, Midwest Central 51-42, Carrollton 53-43, and then Calhoun.
The big story throughout the week and what will probably be ongoing is the condition of Jonah Hopper’s back. He was playing not at 100 percent through all four games, but last night he still scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Spartans.
“It was rough. I was very afraid that I would hurt it, but I didn’t think about it whenever I stepped in,” Hopper said. I’m definitely in some pain now, but I’m gonna heal up and come back and do it again.”
Josh Hopper added seven points, and Brett Whicker chipped in six.
The Spartans are state-ranked and now boast a 17-4 record on the season and are on pace to win 20 games, which would be a first for coach Barry in his 12 years at North Greene.
“You look at North Greene, and there’s a reason why they’re [17-4]. They had all the hype coming into the year, and we’ve got some kids on the floor that have never played varsity basketball. I think it shows the strides we’ve made in the last month,” Calhoun head coach Ryan Graner said. “I’m awful proud of my team. We showed a lot of heart and fortitude in the last month when things weren’t going well.”
Freshman Corey Nelson led Calhoun with 17 points, and Drew Baalman added 15. Chandler Sievers finished with 11, and he’s been one of the players that Graner initially tipped to have a good season and now is filling out those expectations.
“He’s one that we have expectations for coming in. He’s really stepped up the past couple weeks, and he had a very good tournament this week,” Graner said.
The Warriors looked the better team in the beginning and led 12-10 after the first quarter and were ahead for most of the first half.
North Greene started to assert themselves and led 21-20 with under a minute to play and got a six-point swing. After a close who-touched-it last-call that went in favor of the Spartans, Jonah Hopper drained a three and then with time running out he banked in another triple just before the buzzer sounded.
That was a key sequence as North Greene didn’t allow Calhoun within one possession of them until very late in the contest.
“Sometimes we get going a little hard and out of control. I think our guys did a much better job of that late in the game, especially controlling the tempo and the ball, and doing the things we want to do,” Barry said. “Our guys locked it in there defensively. They played tough and moved their feet.”
The Warriors cut the deficit to 42-38 in the fourth quarter, but the Spartans went on a 7-2 run late on, and it seemed as if they would hold on with ease.
Actually, not so much.
Jonah Hopper was whistled for a technical foul with 38.4 seconds to play, and North Greene was winning 49-42. Baalman made both free throws and moments later Nelson sunk two more free throws after being fouled to make the score 49-46.
The Spartans did enough as they made three-of-four free throws to get up by six before Baalman made a three-pointer with 1.0 seconds left.
Despite the loss and going 2-2 in the tournament, coach Graner has a positive mindset going forward with his team.
“I like where we’re at. We’re maturing quickly and doing a lot of right things,” Graner said. “We’re a completely different animal than we were three-and-a-half weeks ago. We haven’t peaked, but we’re on that trend."
