The Carmel boys basketball team handed New Castle, the top-ranked team in Class 3A, its first loss of the season Saturday.
A basket at the buzzer by Andrew Owens sent the Greyhounds past the Trojans 61-59 in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Eric Clark Activity Center. New Castle had won its first 16 games of the season before Saturday. Carmel is now 11-5.
“This team, they’re fighting and they’re committed to working at it, and there’s a lot of areas where we got to get better,” said Greyhounds coach Ryan Osborn. “That’s a good team and to walk away from this kind of weekend 2-0 is good for us. But it’s not settling. We got a lot of room to grow.”
The game was close all the way, with the Trojans leading 20-18 after the first quarter and Carmel coming back to go up 35-34 at halftime. Owens had an incredible first half, scoring 17 of his game-high 26 points and making three of his four 3-pointers.
The ‘Hounds added to their lead in the third quarter, going ahead 50-44 by the end of the period. The Trojans then came back to tie the game in the final seconds before Owens’ basket.
John Michael Mulloy reached double-double status with 11 rebounds and 10 points, blocking two shots as well. Eddie Gill added nine points and eight rebounds. Luke Heady handed out five assists.
Carmel will next host Lawrence North in a Thursday Metropolitan Conference game.
Carmel 61,
New Castle 59
Carmel FG FT TP PF
Cole Jenkins 3-7 0-0 7 1
Eddie Gill 2-4 4-4 9 4
Luke Heady 3-8 0-0 7 2
Andrew Owens 11-13 0-0 26 2
John Michael Mulloy 4-9 2-3 10 4
Karsten Windlan 1-8 0-0 2 0
Alex Jackson 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 24-49 6-7 61 13
Score by Quarters
New Castle 20 14 10 15 – 59
Carmel 18 17 15 11 – 61
Carmel 3-point shooting (7-18) Owens 4-6, Jenkins 1-3, Heady 1-3, Gill 1-1, Windlan 0-4, Mulloy 0-1.
Carmel rebounds (27) Mulloy 11, Gill 8, Owens 3, Heady 2, Jackson 2, Jenkins 1.