March 19, 2024

CD explodes late in win over Clarke

It was a tale of two halves here on Dec. 2, as Clarke owned the first half and Central Decatur owned the second half in a 66-46 Cardinal victory.

Clarke guards Troy Morgan and Carlos Tamayo shot lights out in the first half, as Morgan drained five 3-pointers in the first half and Tamayo added three of his own in helping the Indians build a 28-24 halftime lead.

“I thought we played well as a team in the first half,” Clarke head coach James Larson said. “Second half, I don’t think we shared the ball as well as we did in the first half. Some nights you’re hitting and some nights you’re not, so second half when we weren’t hitting our shots, you could see that was affecting us.”

Morgan made his sixth 3-pointer of the game early in the second half to give Clarke a 35-31 lead, and then Brandyne Olin took a pass from Morgan for a basket and the foul to make it 41-36 with less than 4:00 remaining in the third quarter.

The Cardinals got three straight 3-pointers to end the quarter, though, giving them a 45-43 lead. Carter Boothe banked one in and then Noah Simon sank back-to-back 3-pointers to close out the quarter.

The Cardinals built a 50-44 lead early in the fourth quarter, and then Aaron Linhart rattled home a 3-pointer, followed by back-to-back Peyton Pedersen treys to blow the game open.

Central Decatur outscored Clarke 21-3 in the fourth quarter.

“We knew they’d come out with a lot of energy, and the way they started the game shooting, that gave them more energy and they had a good crowd,” Central Decatur head coach Zach Clark said. “We kept making mistakes and had to fight that off. We finally settled down and started making shots and were able to take control.”

Clarke praised Kyle Palmer, Noah Bishop and Boothe for injecting energy into the Cardinal defense that sparked the team in the second half.

Pedersen led all scorers with 35 points in the game, while Simon added 14 for the Cardinals. Morgan dropped in 21 points for Clarke and Grant Wishon added 11, with Tamayo scoring nine.