Cougars' huge second half leads to win

Greenfield-Central and New Palestine had faced pretty brutal opening stretches to their schedules -- their opponents had a combined record of 22-3.

So tonight, something had to give. And what gave was Josh Mayes -- he just kept giving the twine a ripping in the second half. The G-C senior scored eight straight third-quarter points to reverse what had been a seven-point New Palestine lead, and then kept hitting. Mayes scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, as the Cougars hit 73 percent of their shots after halftime and rallied to a 51-35 victory.

G-C outscored NP 36-15 in the second half, largely behind Mayes and 6-6 post Tyler Stone, who scored 12 points, and a 2-3 zone defense that covered up NP's shooters and kept the Dragons from getting inside looks. NP shot 28 percent from the floor after the break. Josh Penley led the Dragons with 12 points.

Both teams are 1-4 and have the rest of the weekend off. G-C visits Yorktown next Friday and hosts Fishers Saturday. NP travels to Morristown Friday.

Elsewhere in Hancock County tonight:
Eastern Hancock 74, Northeastern 45: Aaron Spaulding's club is 4-1 and a fraction of a second away from being unbeaten. The Royals post a sizeable road win tonight, giving them a boost heading into next Friday's game at Knightstown, which will be our Game of the Week broadcast, starting at 7:10 p.m.

Pendleton Heights 52, Mt. Vernon 43: The Arabians jumped out to an early lead and held off a scrappy Marauder club. MV is 0-3 against one of the toughest schedules in the state.

Next week's broadcasts
We have two broadcasts next week
On Thursday, Dec. 16, the No. 1-ranked Mt. Vernon girls basketball team will host county rival New Palestine in a Hoosier Heritage Conference clash.

On Friday, Dec. 17, Eastern Hancock's red-hot boys team will head down U.S. 40 to face arch-rival Knightstown.

Airtime for both games will be approximately 7:10 p.m., with tipoff at 7:30 p.m.

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