Indians get season sweep over Loyal, stay in third

For about two-thirds of the Jan. 30 boys basketball rivalry showdown between Loyal and Greenwood, the Greyhounds found a way to stay not just close, but even build small leads over the Indians. With about 12 minutes left to play, that changed.

Greenwood put together a 12-2 run over a span of four minutes midway through the second half that propelled it to the eventual 56-45 win that gave it sole possession of third place in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference. The victory gave Greenwood the 2019-20 season sweep over Loyal and improved its mark to 7-2 in the ECC and 8-4 overall.

The Indians nudged the Greyhounds 59-57 in their first meeting of the year at Loyal on Dec. 6 when senior guard Treyton Thomas sank the winning lay-up with five seconds left to play. It appeared the rematch would be just as close.

Loyal took its biggest lead of the night at 20-13 midway through the first half as senior guard Trevyn Wilke hit a pair of 3-pointers and Kole Bogdonovich slashed into the lane several times for scores on his way to an 11-point half. Junior Jonah Hinker kept Greenwood close as he scored eight straight points down low for the Indians in a 5-minute stretch late in the half. Wilke’s second 3-pointer of the half with a minute to play gave the Greyhounds a 26-23 edge at the break.

Loyal got its lead as high as five points early in the second half, and a Bogdonovich 3-pointer at the 12:35 mark gave the Greyhounds a 33-31 advantage. It would be their last lead of the night.

Westen Schmitz began Greenwood’s decisive 12-2 run by taking his man oneon- one to the left baseline for a score and a foul and a 3-point play. Cooper Bredlau followed with a score in transition after the Indians ran down a long rebound on Wilke’s miss on a 3-point attempt. Hinker snared an offensive board and powered back to the rim for a score and a 38-33 Greenwood lead. After Drew Stieglitz scored in the low post for Loyal, Schmitz canned a 3-pointer when he was left unguarded on an inbounds play. Schmitz again took his man to the left for a score after Nathan Revier gave his team a second chance by clearing the offensive glass, and the Indian lead had swelled to 43-35 with 8:11 to play.

Another Stieglitz score in the paint trimmed the lead back to six, but Austen Humke hit both ends of a bonus free-throw situation at 6:36 to push it back to 45-37. The lead jumped to double digits shortly after with another Schmitz baseline drive for points and Revier’s 3-pointer from the wing after Hinker drew defenders inside and kicked the ball out for the open perimeter look. Greenwood got the lead to as many as 16 points in the next few minutes, before Loyal cut the final gap to 11 on scores from Bogdonovich and Wilke in the waning seconds.

Greenwood had a balanced scoring effort with 16 points from Schmitz, 14 from Bredlau, 10 from Hinker and nine from Thomas. The Indians hit just two 3-pointers in the game, and went 8-11 at the free-throw line.

Bogdonovich led Loyal with 19 points and Wilke added 15. The Greyhounds were able to knock down five shots from 3-point range, and were 4-6 at the line.

DEAN LESAR/STAFF PHOTO

DEAN LESAR/STAFF PHOTO