By Zak Keefer
Greenfield Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — Following his squad’s three-point loss to New Castle in their season opener Saturday night, Adam Barton posed one final thought to his players as they sat in the locker room.
“Raise your hand if you played your first significant varsity minutes tonight,” he told them.
Six of nine hands shot in the air.
It was a symbolic gesture for a young Dragon squad (0-1) that boasts only two seniors on its roster and three with any experience at the varsity level. NP led the contest throughout only to watch the Trojans’ senior floor leader, Corey Clemens, lead a fourth quarter blitz that resulted in a 40-37 NC win.
“I think the young kids handled the pressure really well,” said Barton, in his fourth year as NP’s head coach. “They did a great job of not getting rattled early on and hopefully we can use the positives from tonight down the road.”
The game was a close one from the start. The Dragons, who led by five at the end of three quarters, trailed by one point with 12.5 seconds left before Barton called time.
The play was designed as a lob for big man Sean Cochran, NP’s 6-foot-7 senior center who would finish the night with seven points and nine rebounds.
But the inbounds pass never made into Cochran’s hands. The Trojans’ intercepted it and found Clemens, who was subsequently fouled. Moments later, he sunk two free throws to extend the lead to three.
Trevor Baker’s last-second three-point attempt for the Dragons missed wide.
“That one’s on me; it’s my fault,” Barton said about the team’s inability to get a shot off on the inbounds play. “I didn’t give the kids a very good opportunity. It didn’t work out and the pass got tipped. That just happens sometimes.”
Clemens finished the night with a game-high 21 points and added seven rebounds. For NP, junior guard Andrew McClatchey led the way with 14 points, draining three of six attempts from beyond the three-point arc. Dave Anderson added eight and Pat Feeney had seven.
McClatchey’s touch from long range came to a bit of a surprise to Barton — who says the sharpshooter had been off his stroke in practice the past few weeks.
“I thought he played a great game and really hit some big shots for us,” Barton said. “He’s struggled with his shot the past few weeks and after he hit his first one tonight, you could tell he found his range.”
Barton did admit that while he saw what he wanted out of the defense, the Dragons’ execution on offense was a different story.
“Our defense was really a bit ahead of our offense tonight,” Barton said, referring to NP holding the Trojans to 27 percent shooting for the night. “I thought we did a great job defensively, getting a hand in their shooter’s faces and fighting through their ball screens.”
The Dragons were clearly a little out of sync on the offensive side in certain parts of the game — perhaps due their inexperience as well as some first-game jitters. For the night, NP finished 12-for-42 from the floor for a meager 29 percent.
“Offensively, we’re trying to do some new things,” Barton said. “They are really tough because they have athletes at each position and they do a great job of cutting off our penetration lanes.”
The Dragons held a 20-14 halftime advantage in large part due to the Trojans’ inability to find their stroke from long range. New Castle launched 15 treys in the first 24 minutes, only making two of them. NP wasn’t much better—two for seven—but they were able to find easy baskets in the paint for Feeney and Cochran.
Despite the loss, Barton remained confident his team would learn from the loss.
“That’s the nice thing about the beginning of the season, we can start looking at the tape and get going on what we can get fixed,” he said.
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