UPDATED: Eastern Greene holds off Bloomfield, 51-49

Eastern Greene's Zach Ingram (right) looks to make a pass while being guarded by Bloomfield's Cory Slaven during a high school boys basketball game at Glover Gymnasium Saturday. (By B.J. Hargis/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

BLOOMFIELD -- In a game of spurts, Eastern Greene used a 13-2 outburst to take a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter and needed all of them to hold off host Bloomfield 51-49 in a Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference boys basketball game at Glover Gymnasium here Saturday night.

Bloomfield, who dropped to 1-1 overall and in the SWIAC, took its last lead -- 39-37 -- on a pair of free throws by Andy Cochrane, who paced the Cardinals with 21 points, with five minutes and 25 seconds remaining. The Cardinals trailed 11-0 at the start before closing to within 11-10 at the end of the first period.

Thunderbird forward Zack Johnson assisted on a basket by Davis Russell, who tied Cochrane for game-high honors with 21 points, and then Russell came up with a steal that Johnson converted into a deuce as Eastern Greene went ahead 50-41 with 100 seconds remaining.

"Gene Keady (former Purdue University coach) had a saying about never running something you haven't practiced," said Eastern Greene coach Andy Igel, whose T-Birds led 20-18 at intermission. "We hadn't run it since last year.

"But I knew Bloomfield would follow JT (Yoho) across on that play and that the back door would be open. Zack made a nice pass and then followed that up with a big basket. He hurt himself with two silly fouls early."

But the Thunderbirds (2-0, 1-0) missed 4 of 5 free throws over the final 68 seconds, opening the door the Cardinals.

Cochrane scored five straight points -- three foul shots and a driving lay-up, cutting the deficit to 50-46 with 24 seconds remaining.

Eastern Greene point guard Tyler Igel misfired on his second-straight foul shot, both one-and-one opportunities, and Cochrane, who was 6 of 16 shooting including 0 of 5 from 3-point range, missed a jumper with 12 ticks remaining.

Igel then was fouled again and made the second of two attempts on the double bonus, putting the T-Birds ahead by five points.

Ryan O'Neall, who hit a 3-pointer from inside half court to end the third quarter to put the Cardinals ahead 35-32, made another trey with 2.4 seconds to play, trimming the final deficit to two points.

But with no time outs, the Cards had no recourse to watch the clock roll down to 0:00.

"You have to give coach (John) Bucher and Bloomfield all the credit," said Eastern Greene coach Andy Igel. "They battled back from 11-0 down at the start of the game and then came back from eight or nine down in the fourth quarter. They really scratched and clawed.

"But you have to give our kids credit too. We were not happy with the way we played, but we made big plays when we had to. I don't think we would have been mature enough to win a game like this last year. The fans sure got their money's worth tonight."

Yoho added 16 points for the T-Birds. Zach Ingram had four points and 10 rebounds.

O'Neall had 12 points off the bench for the Cardinals and Holden Hamm added nine, including an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Cardinals their first lead -- 32-20 late in the third quarter.

"Eastern Greene knew they were in a ball game tonight," said Bucher. "In my opinion, coach Igel instills toughness in his players. They play very hard and they are well coached.

"I was pretty proud of our effort. We have to do a better job of concentration, especially on defense. We did not do a very good job on their 3-point shooters.

In the junior-varsity contest, Nate Higgins (13) and Jake Hash (11) combined for 24 points to lead Eastern Greene to a 36-19 victory.

Blake Crowe had four points, Brody Martin three, Kurtis Stille and Zak Eckerle each added two, Nathan Cobine scored one and Masen Stevens, Zach Bruner, Tyler Brough and Logan Frye went scoreless.

For Bloomfield, Curtis Hasler scored seven points, Bryce McGlothlin five, Kyle Doan three, Ben Vandeventer and Robert Buka both scored two and Ben Hayes, Caleb Bucher and Corey Kilgore played but did not score.

Eastern Greene will play at Mitchell Friday while Bloomfield continues with early SWIAC games when they play at Shakamak Friday before hosting Linton-Stockton Saturday.

Saturday

EASTERN GREENE (51) -- Zack Johnson 3-5 1-1 7, Zach Ingram 2-3 0-0 4, Tyler Igel 1-2 1-4 3, Davis Russell 8-12 1-1 21, JT Yoho 7-14 1-1 16, Cody Sparks 0-1 0-1 0, Sam Jacob 0-2 0-0 0, Miles Hutchison 0-3 0-1 0, Logan Hash 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 4-9 51.

BLOOMFIELD (49) -- Andy Cochrane 6-16 9-12 21, Drake Vandeventer 1-1 0-2 2, Cory Slaven 1-1 2-4 4, Holden Hamm 3-7 3-4 9, Bryce Lindsey 0-4 1-3 1, Ryan O'Neall 5-7 0-0 12, Payton Karl 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 16-39 15-25 49.

Eastern Greene 11 9 12 19 -- 51

Bloomfield 10 8 17 14 -- 49

3-point shooting -- Eastern Greene 5-12 (Russell 4-5, Yoho 1-4, Sparks 0-1, Jacob 0-2), Bloomfield 2-10 (O'Neall 2-3, Hamm 0-1, Lindsey 0-1, Cochrane 0-5). Fouls -- Eastern Greene 19, Bloomfield 15. Fouled out -- Johnson. Rebounds -- Eastern Greene 24 (Ingram 10), Bloomfield 29 (Hamm 5, Lindsey 5, Vandeventer 5). Assists -- Eastern Greene 7 (Sparks 2), Bloomfield 6 (O'Neall 2). Steals -- Eastern Greene 5 (Yoho 2), Bloomfield 8 (Cochrane 3). Turnovers -- Eastern Greene 12 (Ingram 3), Bloomfield 14 (Hamm 3). Blocks -- Eastern Greene 0, Bloomfield 2 (Cochrane).