By Will Willems/The Lebanon Reporter
Danville — The Lebanon Tigers boys’ basketball team knew it was going to take a near perfect effort to knock off the No. 1-ranked Danville Warriors on their home court Saturday night in the sectional final.
And while the they gave it a valiant effort, the Tigers were far from perfect, losing 68-52 to the Warriors. The Tigers end their season 13-10.
“(Danville is) a good team,” Lebanon head coach Tom Johnson said. “(Danville head coach) Brian (Barber) does a good job with them. There isn’t a large margin of error when you play them. I am very proud of our kids. We had two instances, one in the first and one in the second half where we were down double figures and both times we battled back in there.
The progress of this team from the start of the year to the finish of the year I think was phenomenal. I wish the seniors the best. You don’t want any senior class to go out losing in the sectional. But I told our kids: ‘Remember this feeling. Make sure you keep that feeling when we start working out again in April.’”
Leading 10-7 early, Danville scored the next eight points to grab an 11-point lead. Six of those points occurred after Lebanon point guard Trey Hendrix picked up his second foul with 3:45 remaining in the opening quarter.
While Hendrix remained in the game, he wasn’t able to be as aggressive on the defensive end, allowing Danville to penetrate. But even when they got down 11, the Tigers wouldn’t back down.
Jacob Molter had a three-point play to cut the lead to eight. Jack Day and Hendrix followed with baskets and Lebanon trailed by just four heading into the second quarter.
Two Brad Hardwick free throws opened the second quarter scoring and cut the lead to two, but Danville responded with the next eight points to go back up 10. When Hendrix picked up his third foul with 5:46 remaining in the half, the Tigers responded yet again.
Seven-consecutive Lebanon points cut the lead to three with just under four minutes to play and after a couple of Danville baskets, Hardwick’s driving basket cut the lead to five with 1:03 to play in the quarter.
Lebanon stopped Danville with five seconds left in the half, but Hardwick was called for a double-dribble turning the ball over. Danville made the Tigers pay as Jordan Weidner hit a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to give the Warriors the eight-point halftime advantage.
“We were pretty pleased with the fact that Trey had to sit a lot in the first half and I thought we did a nice job of staying in there,” Johnson said. “We had it down to five and got a defensive rebound and turned it over and (they hit a 3). That is the kind of team they are. If you make a little mistake it can turn into a big mistake really fast.”
Danville started the second half on a 14-2 run to go up 20 points. Lebanon tried to mount one last comeback on the back of its sophomore star.
Hendrix caught fire hitting four 3-pointers in a 17-4 run that got Lebanon within seven with just under six minutes remaining. But the Tigers simply ran out of gas.
Danville scored 14 of the next 16 points to put Lebanon down 19 and closed the game out from there.
“That is an awful deep hole to come back from against a good team,” Johnson said. “I am awfully proud of our kids. We got back in there, cut it down to seven and I can’t say enough about our kids. It seemed like several times where we played really good defensive and then we would give up something we shouldn’t. Those are the plays, when we talk about there isn’t much room for error against them, that if they get 3 or 4 plays like that and get an 8 or 9 point lead then you really have to change your thinking on what you are going to do on both ends of the court.”
Danville shot 76.5 percent (13 of 17) in the second half and 26 of 40 (65.0 percent) in the game. Weidner led the Warriors with 23 points.
Travis Carroll added 16 points and seven rebounds while Tyler Hall and Michael Humphrey scored 13 and 11 respectively.
Hendrix led the Tigers with 21 points, including five 3-pointers. Day added nine to go along with his game-high eight rebounds. Hardwick scored seven in his final game at Lebanon.
Despite a big size disadvantage, Lebanon was even in the rebounding battle (27-27). They also had 14 offensive rebounds compared to seven for the Warriors.
Although the Tigers lose four seniors — Hardwick, Molter, Alex Prittie and Alex Zobrist — they return four players who started Saturday.
Hendrix, Day, Garrett Breedlove, Caleb Brannon and Brock Smith all played significant minutes this season and will be keys to the future success of the Tigers.
“We have a lot to look forward to with this group coming back this year,” Johnson said.
Danville advances to the Shelbyville Regional where they will take on Brebeuf Jesuit.
