North Montgomery was within reach of its first boys’ basketball win this season, but was unable to close the deal. The Chargers fell to Sheridan 39-33 on Tuesday night.
The win came in the Blackhawks’ first contest of the season, while North Montgomery falls to 0-5.
North Montgomery led 19-18 at the half and 28-26 at the end of three quarters, but Sheridan outscored the Chargers 13-5 in the final period, including a 9-0 run that spanned from the 4:28 mark to the final minute of the game. Kyle Eden and Silas Devaney scored back-to-back baskets to tie it at 30, before Ethan Moistner gave the Blackhawks the lead for good at 31-30 with a free throw with 3:07 to play. Moistner led all scorers with 12, while Eden added nine for Sheridan.
The Chargers led by as many as nine of the first half, as they held the Blackhawks to a 5-of-32 effort from the field in the first 16 minutes, but 14 first half turnovers by the Chargers and seven offensive rebounds for the Blackhawks kept Sheridan in the game.
“Those are the three things we put on the board every time,” North Montgomery coach Chad Arnold said. “We have to defend, rebound, and take care of the ball. If you do those three or even two of the three, I think you win the game.”
North Montgomery turned it over 20 times, but out-rebounded Sheridan 38-34 for the game. The Chargers even held the Blackhawks to 10-of-48 shooting, but the ultimate key came at the foul line. Sheridan connected on 18-of-27 charity tosses, compared to just 7-of-17 for the Chargers.
The Blackhawks took their first lead since it was 1-0 early in the third quarter at 20-19, but the Chargers bounced back to go up 28-26 after three quarters. Jakob Kirsch and Kerbe Cottrell combined for a 11-2 run that put North Montgomery up 30-26 with 4:46 left. Unfortunately, the Chargers made just a single field goal the rest of the way.
“To their defense, we haven’t worked on a lot of situations with that, because we are working on so many other things,” Arnold said. “I think we shot 7-of-17 from the free throw line. I can be blamed for that. We haven’t shot near the free throws we did last year, but there’s just not enough time in practice for everything. We are just trying to do the little things like taking care of the ball and rebounding, and defending. Trying to work on those just so we can be in the game.”
Cottrell led the Chargers with 10, while Kirsch added seven.
North Montgomery entertains Indianapolis Manual on Saturday afternoon.
