Solid team play leads to an Arcanum season opening win over the Green Wave.
GREENVILLE – The Arcanum Trojans defeated the Green Wave 46-32 in a non-conference season opener for both Darke County teams.
“Great team win,” said Arcanum veteran coach, Roger McEldowney. “Everyone contributed.”
“I thought their kids played really hard and just kept coming and coming and made it really tough on us,” McEldowney continued. “We were able to make enough plays to keep a nice cushion.”
Arcanum took advantage of three first quarter 3-pointers including one each from Garrett Garno, Bryson Sharp and Chad Pitzer and a perfect 5-5 at the free throw line to earn a 16-10 lead after one period of play led by Nick Sharritts’ 5-points.
Jake Goubeaux led Arcanum with seven second quarter points with the Trojans taking the period 12-5 and a 28-15 lead at the break.
Greenville battled back to take period No. 3 by an 11-9 score with DJ Zimmer leading the Wave with 4-points sending the teams to the final period with Arcanum up 37-26.
Arcanum’s sharp-shooting four year starting floor leader and leading scorer, Jake Goubeaux went out midway through the third period with a deep gash on his knee sending the senior to the bench for the remainder of the game.
“We had some kids playing varsity basketball with some serious minutes for the first time,” said McEldowney. “They were a little shaky early but down the stretch and they really made some plays for us especially with Jake being out. He cut his knee and wasn’t able to play the last quarter and a half – and he’s our main ball handler.”
“Chad Pitzer stepped up, Garno played just a phenomenal game and Bryson Sharp came in and handled the ball some for us – Nate Kessler had a great game for us as well,” added McEldowney. “Isaiah Gilmore did a great job off the bench for us as well giving us a lot of energy.”
Arcanum’s 6’5” 310 pound Chase Werling accounted for six fourth quarter points under the bucket to lead the Trojans to a 9-6 advantage giving Arcanum a 46-32 victory.
“He’s hard to get around when he’s posting in there,” McEldowney said of Werling. “We need to keep working at getting him the ball in close because he does a great job of posting.”
“I was really proud of our guys tonight. We had some guys doing some things late in the game that don’t normally or haven’t had that opportunity. It wasn’t always pretty but they got it done and they did a nice job and stepped up. Isaiah Gilmore did a great job off the bench for us as well – he gave us a lot of energy.”
“Our two big guys did a great job,” added McEldowney added. “We shot 50 percent for the game which is good for us. I thought we had to rebound to win and I thought our guys did a pretty good job at that for the most part.”
Arcanum’s 6’5” junior, Nick Sharritts led the Trojans with 10-points and Greenville’s 6’1” starting guard, Oriol Garcia paced the Green Wave with 10-points.
BOXSCORE
ARCANUM 46, GREENVILLE 32
ARCANUM – N. Sharritts 10, J. Goubeaux 9, G. Garno 7, C. Pitzer 7, C. Werling 6, A. Psczulkoski 4, B. Sharp 3 – TOTALS 9 16-25 4 46
GREENVILLE – O. Garcia 10, N. Curtis 9, DJ Zimmer 6, EB Fall 3, M. Bryant 2, A. Baumgardner 1, H. Bush 1 – TOTALS 5 13-27 3 32
3-POINTERS
Arcanum
Greenville 3 (O. Garcia 2, N. Curtis 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-12-09-09 46 Arcanum
10-05-11-06 32 Greenville
