Conference comebacks fall short for Arabians

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GREENFIELD — Luke Weaver’s dead-eye shooting led a feverish comeback, but it wasn’t quite enough in Pendleton Heights’ search for a Hoosier Heritage Conference victory.

The Arabians dropped to 0-4 in the HHC with a 66-63 loss at Greenfield-Central on Friday. That league mark fell to 0-5 on Saturday with another tight game, but they were on the short end of a 68-60 count at Shelbyville.

“Both games, we were dealing with the same thing,” Pendleton Heights coach Adam Ballard said. “We’ve got to do a better job of not allowing ourselves to get down and then having to come back. It’s not something you can always avoid, but it’s something we have to work on.”

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Against Greenfield-Central, Weaver, a senior, came off the bench to be co-leading scorer for the Arabians with 16 points.

All of his points came in the second half, with 13 in the fourth quarter.

Weaver hit his first six shots and went 6-of-7 from the field and 4-of-5 from 3-point range. He had scored just 10 points all season coming into Friday’s game at G-C.

“Luke would be the first to tell you he’d wish he’d get more minutes,” Ballard said. “He’s in a tough situation where he plays a position we are very heavy at. It’s not where it’s anything he’s not capable of.”

“It goes to show the type of kid he is. He continues to come every day and work (hard) and be ready. When he was called upon he came out and performed. He’s not going to go 6-7 every time, but if you stay focused on what’s important, and stay focused on being a great teammate, that chance comes and you take advantage of it. That is what he did.”

The Cougars had built a second-half double-figure lead before Weaver and the Arabians fought back to get within one point in the final minute.

Pendleton Heights hit seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Weaver started the run on long-range connections with a trey with 4:35 remaining to cut G-C’s lead to 52-45. The Arabians hit 3-pointers on five straight possessions, getting two each from Weaver and Jamison Dunham and one from Evan John, who also had 16 points.

Dunham’s second trey of the run was from well beyond the 3-point arc and cut the Cougars’ lead to 60-57.

Weaver hit a 2-pointer with 1:07 remaining to trim the margin to 60-59, but the Cougars hit six straight at the line and had a steal in the final minute to close out the game.

Pendleton Heights finished with 11 3-pointers, hitting 9-of-17 tries (52.9%) in the second half.

Dunham added 11 points.

The Arabians had 30 of their 63 points in the fourth quarter.

Pendleton Heights had jumped out early to a 9-2 lead, but Greenfield-Central, aided by a trio of subs, Rashawn Street, Ben Montgomery and Joey Roland, went on a 15-0 run to take control of the game. G-C outscored Pendleton Heights 17-7 in the second quarter.

Arabians junior Luke Candiano had nine points, including 7-of-8 at the free-throw line to go with a game-high five rebounds. Ethan Ross led the Arabians with four assists. Dunham had a game-high three steals.

On Saturday at Shelbyville, the Arabians trailed early, 15-7 after the first quarter and by 15, 33-18 at halftime.

Pendleton Heights outscored Shelbyville 42-35 in the second half.

Again, the Arabians shot well from 3-point range, hitting 8-of-14 attempts (57.1%).

Dunham finished with 31 points, hitting 4-of-6 from 3-point range.

Freshman Dontrez Braxton scored 10 points and hit two 3-pointers. Frosh Josiah Gustin had a team-best six rebounds. Candiano had three assists.

Again, Ballard said the key was the team needing to convert better on shots in the paint.

For the season, the Arabians have shot 40% from 3-point range, 74% from the free-throw line, but only 43% on 2-point field-goal attempts.

“That has to be more 50, 51-52 (%),” Ballard said of his team’s accuracy from 2-point range. “If you can go from 43(%) to 50%, you’re talking about a difference of 60 or 70 points throughout all of our games.

“If you add eight points to our scores, some of our (outcomes) are different. I know it’s not that simple, but it reinforces the point that if we start finishing better around the basket it will open up things for us.”

Pendleton Heights is 4-10 overall.

The game set for today, Feb. 4, against Yorktown was postponed because the Tigers having to pause activities in their program.

Ballard said he believes his guys will be ready to go when that next game comes, which is now a non-conference game Saturday at Heritage Christian.

“I’m very optimistic about our kids. They’re a good group of boys,” Ballard said. “The cool thing about our kids, every Monday they are back in the gym and ready to go.”

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