Sectional 9: Connersville vs. New Castle

Sectional championship games are a special atmosphere. When your sectional title game is played in front of 8,000 people? That's an atmosphere unlike any other. New Castle Fieldhouse was clad in green and red on Saturday and filled to the brim, as Connersville repeated as Sectional 9 champions.

Missing starting forward Beau Isaacs with a left knee injury, things went from bad to worse early on as forward Dalton Huffman picked up two fouls in the first minute, forcing Connersville coach Kerry Brown to go small. "I was just thinking 'What can you do?", said Connersville coach Kerry Brown. "It's just next man up. We just threw guys in there and we'll do the best we can." New Castle responded by pounding the ball in the post as 6'6 forwards Mason Gillis and Titen Bennett combined for seven of the Trojans' 11 first quarter points. Connersville sophomore Noah Belt would score all five of his points in the first quarter for the Spartans.

Connersville started the second period with a 10-2 run. Grant Smith would hit a three, then jump into a passing lane and race alone for a breakaway dunk. Garrett Silcott would end the run by converting an old-fashioned three-point play to give his side an eight-point advantage. New Castle would close, however, as Mason Gillis snagged an offensive rebound off a missed three-pointer and sank the putback just before the halftime buzzer, cutting Connersville's advantage to three.

Coming out of the locker room, each team traded buckets before New Castle would string a couple of defensive stops together, and a Luke Bumbalough pull-up three gave New Castle a 33-32 lead. That lead would be short lived, as Connersville ended the quarter on a 9-1 run, with all nine points coming from the hand of 6'6 senior Grant Smith. Two of those points were the result of technical free throws. Smith drew a charge on New Castle's Titen Bennett, who argued the call and was hit with a technical.

Connersville's lead would extend to 12 midway through the fourth quarter after Garrett Silcott would get a deflection and go in for a two-handed dunk. Titen Bennett would hit a three-pointer on the next possession, but nine points would be as close as New Castle would get the rest of the game, as Grant Smith would seal the game from the line, going 16-17 overall from the stripe and scoring 19 of his game-high 30 in the second half. "Grant kind of just put us on his back, but our kids deserve a lot of credit for a gutsy, gritty performance," said Brown. "Our kids believed, I felt confident that our kids thought that we can win, even with Beau out."

Connersville 11 18 12 18 - 59
New Castle 11 15 8 10 - 44

Connersville: Grant Smith 30 points (6/10 FGs, 2/3 3Ps, 16/17 FTs), 8 rebs; Garrett Silcott 13 points (5/7 FGs, 1/1 3Ps, 2/4 FTs), 8 rebs, 5 asts, 2 stls; Noah Belt 5 points (2/8 FGs, 1/4 3Ps); Dalton Huffman 5 points; Dalton Lee 3 points; Hunter Sullenbarger 2 points (1/8 FGs); Braxton Revalee 1 point

New Castle: Mason Gillis 13 points (6/15 FGs, 1/1 FTs), 13 rebs; Luke Bumbalough 13 points (2/11 FGs, 2/8 3Ps, 7/10 FTs); David Froedge 6 points (2/8 FGs, 1/6 3Ps); Titen Bennett 6 points (2/4 FGs, 1/3 3Ps); Niah Williamson 6 points