HOWARD — A strong third quarter helped Centerburg pull away from East Knox on Tuesday, as the Trojans won the Mid-Buckeye Conference tilt, 63-44.
The Trojans (3-7, 2-4 MBC) canned 8 of 11 shots from the field in the quarter as they turned an eight-point halftime lead (30-22) into a 19-point lead.
“Our guys executed pretty well tonight,” said Centerburg coach John Marhefka. “We had nice balance. I was pleased with the focus. We executed the game plan we talked about.”
Centerburg used a Princeton-style spread offense to open up a small lead in the first half. They were able to get a couple of easy baskets out of the offense, but didn’t really break through until the third when they turned up the defensive pressure on East Knox (0-9, 0-6 MBC).
The Bulldogs managed just three baskets in the third as Centerburg slowly pulled away.
“In the third quarter, they (Centerburg) started to go to the post more, a more conventional type of offense. They were running a Princeton offense in the first half and I thought we did a nice job against it for a while,” said East Knox coach Don McDaniel. “I thought at halftime we were still in it. We just needed to take care of the basketball and get some good shots. We got some good shots, they just didn’t go in as much as we wanted.”
East Knox started the game strong, led by Cole Forshey and David Judson. Forshey hit a pair of three-pointers and Judson made two layups off nice feeds from his teammates as the Bulldogs led 10-9.
