by
Richie Hall
Sports Editor
Hamilton County Reporter
CARMEL – For the second consecutive year, the Carmel and Westfield boys basketball teams will battle it out for the Class 4A Sectional 8 championship.
The No. 2-ranked Greyhounds won the first of Friday’s semi-final games at the Eric Clark Activity Center, beating Hamilton Southeastern 46-33. In the second semi-final, the Shamrocks held off a late push by Noblesville to win a wild 81-74 contest.
DEFENSE AND DUNKS
The Greyhounds put together another solid defensive performance on Friday. Carmel began to pull away late in the first quarter after battling the Royals for most of that first period, then used a second-quarter run to build a lead that it maintained in the second half.
The ‘Hounds also threw in some fireworks as well, making five dunks. The first one was by Charlie Williams, and his dunk gave Carmel a 7-4 lead. Not to be outdone, Southeastern’s Dalton Retzner threw down his own dunk, then Vinny Buccilla made a floater to put the Royals up 8-7.
That was to be HSE’s only lead of the game, as the Greyhounds went on a 7-0 run that stretched into the second quarter. Peter Suder and Connor Gioia made layins to finish the first quarter, then Suder scored to open the second. Brian Waddell put down a dunk to finish the run.
“I think defensively we did a good job,” said Carmel coach Ryan Osborn. “The kids carried out a good game plan. They locked in. They made shots difficult, limited some offensive rebounds.”
Retzner stopped that run with two free throws, but Carmel ended the half with a 9-2 stretch to take a 24-12 lead into halftime. Josh Whack scored five points, making two free throws and a 3-pointer.
“Trying to play from behind against them is always tough,” said Royals coach Brian Satterfield. “I got to give our guys a lot of credit. They came out here and they battled, they played hard. But Carmel’s a great team. Coach Osborn does a great job. They’re ranked where they are for a reason.”
The Greyhounds kept their lead at 10 points or above for most of the second half. There were two times the Royals got within nine, starting with the third quarter when Alex Totton hit a jump shot to get Southeastern within 25-16. Carmel responded with a 9-1 run; Waddell scored seven of those points with a triple, another dunk and a layin.
That pattern repeated itself in the fourth quarter. Jason Stutz nailed a 3 to cut the Greyhounds’ lead to 40-31 with four minutes left. But Carmel clinched the game with a 6-0 run: Suder and Whack both made two foul shots, sandwiched in between Waddell’s third dunk of the night. With that, the Greyhounds improved to 21-2 and were back in the sectional final.
“Just an opportunity to play in the championship game, you got to celebrate that,” said Osborn. “I’m proud of the kids for sticking with what we do.”
Waddell scored 13 points to lead Carmel, with Suder scoring 11 and collecting eight rebounds. Williams, who had two dunks in the game, also blocked three shots.
Buccilla scored eight points to lead the Royals, who finished their season at 12-11. Retzner added seven points and pulled four rebounds, while Sam Jacobs handed out four assists. Buccilla and Retzner are seniors, along with Stutz, Totton, Isaac Bowman, Mohammed Awad and John McCall.
For the seniors, Satterfield said, “I commend them for what they did in terms of the leadership of helping everybody stay connected and doing everything that we wanted to do.”
“It’s a group that has led things the right way and hopefully that gets passed along to the leaders that are going to take over next year,” said Satterfield.